The Shake Up
by SepatownSon
Summary: When a head injury causes Superman to lose his memory, Wonder Woman takes the opportunity to change the dynamic of their relationship.
1. Chapter 1

The Shake Up

There were a dozen things that Diana of Themyscira could have been doing right now. She could work out, fly, read, torment her mother, anything. But as bored as she was she still didn't move from her sofa located in her embassy bedroom. Despite the fact that the program she was watching was miserable she still watched it. It was a celebrity gossip show, and this week's edition was profiling the 'The love life of Wonder Woman.' The show was worthless in every way, most of their commentary was speculation and a significant majority of it was way off base but she found herself unable to change the channel.

They started from the beginning, 4 years ago with her brief affair with Steve Trevor when she was 21 years old, just after the Amazons revealed themselves to the world. Steve was a young officer assigned to security for Diana and her mother as they began to integrate back into society. The speculation was that he and Diana had been together under the Queen's nose for months until they were seen publicly together. And that she injured him after he made too strong of a pass at her. In fact none of that was true. Steve was possibly the only non-Amazon who wasn't afraid to speak with her at the time. They became fast friends, and shortly after Diana discovered ballroom dancing she convinced him to break curfew so they could go try it. He only went because she was determined to go with or without him, and regretted his decision. On their very first spin on the dancefloor Diana pulled a little too hard and accidently broke Steve's arm in 3 places. That was the beginning and the end of their relationship.

Then of course there was Bruce Wayne, who she once shared a table with at a charity dinner. After that there was speculation of their whirlwind affair and eventual breakup. All they did was sit at the same table, they barely even spoke to each other! Despite the fact that both she and Bruce publicly denied everything, the vultures still ran with it. In fact she didn't even know Bruce at the time, and didn't want to know him, she had only gone to the event because her mother made her.

They talked about other men she'd been seen in public with as well, sons of politicians, athletes, hollywood actors and the like. But the most buzz was caused after Diana accepted a YouTube invitation to the Grammy's from R&B singer Carmella Day. At the time Diana didn't have the slightest clue that Carmella was an unabashed lesbian, she was just thought it was a kind gesture to invite Diana to an event she had never been to before. There was a now infamous picture all across the internet of Carmella passionately kissing a surprised Diana on the mouth. Even to this day there were still whispers about Diana's sexual preference.

Those whispers were probably strengthened by the fact that Diana never had any sort of romantic connection with Superman. A great deal of the public thought the two of them were an ideal match. Videos of them fighting together were quite popular, as well as photos of them together. Everywhere she went she was asked about him and any possibility of a romantic connection. Recently she'd been on a talk show in England where the female co-host flat out asked how Superman was in bed. Diana simply laughed it off.

However in reality she was always a little bit curious. He was the reason she became sexually aware of men in the first place. While Steve was the first man she'd gotten to know on any level at all, she was fresh off the island when they met. She wasn't the least bit interested in boys or sex. She had known Steve for nearly 5 months before she broke his arm, and hadn't even considered anything romantic with him until the reporters speculated that they had been a couple after the fact. By the time she had he was already gone, reprimanded for breaking protocol, and also he was quite intimidated by her strength. It had been nothing for her to hurt him like that.

But Superman garnered a totally different response. It was unseen by the tactless reporters and reasonably well hidden by her, but he had a weird way of getting her 'motor running' despite not trying to. She was intrigued by him from the beginning, almost in awe of him, until the aliens attacked and they fought side by side to drive them away. She realized he was no different than her in many ways and a friendship was built. A friendship that had been as strong as ever for the last 4 years.

But there was always that little question in the back of her mind. What would they be like together? She knew that she was still attracted to him, and knew that he was to her. Deep down each one of them knew it, but they always kept it on the back burner. Other than that, only two other people knew about her feelings for Superman, or Kal as she called him. Her dear friend Vanessa Kapatelis and of course Queen Hippolyta, her mother. Both of whom occasionally liked to tease her about it.

There was a knock at Diana's door followed by it swinging open. Diana looked up to see her mother walk into her room. In the embassy Hippolyta never waited for anyone to open the door, she simply knocked, then walked in. Diana was used to it by now and didn't complain anymore.

"Good afternoon mother." Diana greeted.

"Good afternoon to you." Hippolyta sat down. "What are you watching?"

"Garbage, it's a paparazzi special about my love life." It was almost over now.

"Why do you watch this? Surely there is something else for you to do."

"There probably is, but I just don't feel like doing anything right now."

"Hmm. Do you have plans later?"

"Yes, I was going to have dinner with Kal on the watchtower."

"Oh, I see. If only those vultures knew about that little tradition." The Queen said with a sly little smile.

Diana rolled her eyes. She and Kal tried their best to have a meal together once a week. But with their busy lives it wasn't uncommon for them to have to cancel. So far however today seemed to be going smoothly. "Thank Hera they don't. Otherwise we'd never hear the end of it."

Hippolyta gave Diana a teasing smile, and gave a little laugh.

"Don't give me that look!" Diana snapped. "Just because he's a man and I'm a woman doesn't mean we can't be just friends."

"I never said a thing." The Queen protested sarcastically raising her hands in a mock surrender.

"Well you were thinking it!" Diana jumped up and went towards the closet, wanting to get an opinion about something. "Our dinner tonight is supposed to be a black tie affair. What do you think of this dress?"

Hippolyta stood up and examined the dress Diana showed. It was a teal, one shouldered dress that went all the way to the floor, with a slit going down the left leg. It was tasteful, elegant, ladylike, something she might even wear herself.

"It's a little modest is it not? Perhaps something a little more revealing. Something to show off your legs, or draw his gaze to your neckline instead of your eyes."

Diana frowned, Hippolyta smiled widely. When it came to Kal-El, Diana was an easy mark. She despised being teased, particularly about him, but the looks her daughter gave her were simply too priceless to pass up. At the end of the day she liked Kal-El, very much so. He was a nice, honorable young man from a nice family. He was a terrific companion for her daughter, a great friend and a powerful ally. And if she were honest with herself, he would be an ideal romantic partner for her too. Or at the very least he would be better than the clowns that vied for Diana's attentions. But it seemed so far that Diana held little interest in romantic relationships with anyone, which was perfect in Hippolyta's view.

* * *

Clark was scrambling, work had kept him later than he planned. He was hoping for a fairly elaborate dinner for he and Diana tonight. Emergencies forced them to cancel 3 out of the last 5, and they ate something simple on the two that they could make. It was Diana's idea to have a fancy black tie dinner, and Clark agreed to make it. The prime rib roast was going to get into the oven maybe an hour later than he'd hoped, which would push things back. Hopefully nothing too crazy happened tonight that would force them to cancel again.

He hurried home, and then up to the watchtower where he had everything reserved and set aside so he could get to work. Once he got the roast into the oven he sent a text to Diana to let her know that their plans would be delayed for an hour or so.

"Hello Superman." Mera walked in to greet him. "You and Diana trying to get your weekly dinner in?"

"We're trying. Please tell me you don't have bad news."

"Oh no. John Henry is tracking something, but I think it won't matter. We'll let you know if we need you."

"How's Arthur doing?" Clark asked, as Mera sat down in a stool apparently in a mood to talk.

"He's tired. He feels bad scaling back his work here, and feels like he needs to make up for lost time."

"Everybody has their priorities. He needs to take care of home. How are you?"

"Fine. I only stopped in to see how things were going, and to ask you something."

"Yeah? What's up?"

"Do you know someone named Lori Lemaris?"

Clark looked up surprised, he hadn't heard that name in a long time. Memories both good and bad washed over him. "Yes why?"

"Interesting. She's a citizen of Atlantis, and she was eager to get a message to you."

"What about?"

"She's pregnant." Mera explained, "Does that mean anything to you?"

"Yeah it does. Wow."

"You're not the father are you?" Mera quickly wondered.

"No! No, I haven't seen her in years." Clark laughed gently. When It appeared Mera was about to ask him to elaborate he decided to indulge her. "We dated most of my sophomore year of college. I obviously didn't realize she was a mermaid until she told me. That's uh, that's great… I'm happy for her."

Mera could tell by looking at him that there was a lot that he wasn't telling her, and she decided to leave him alone with his thoughts. He quietly went back to the items in the kitchen, not doing anything in particular. He barely seemed to notice as she slipped out.

* * *

Diana was disappointed in Kal's delay for several reasons, first of all she was concerned that something would force them to cancel altogether, and secondly because Vanessa would get out of class before she left. In hindsight she should have just gone to the watchtower and spent the time there, but for some reason she couldn't get herself off the couch until it was time to leave. Now Vanessa was teasing her just as her mother did.

"Seriously Diana, he's seen you look elegant a million times. Be a little daring, just this once. Wear this one, show off a little leg, and a little cleavage." Vanessa joked. Pointing out the same dress that Hippolyta did earlier, a dress that Diana had never worn nor planned to wear.

Diana scowled at her. "Did you and my mother call each other this morning to share notes on how to get on my nerves today? We're having dinner, which we've done a hundred times. Why do you insist upon doing this?"

"It's fun." Vanessa Kapatelis was 21 to Diana's 25, a college student who befriended Diana about a year after the Amazons revealed themselves. She was the daughter of Julia Kapatelis, a historian who built a friendship with Hippolyta, and now played a vital role in the day to day operations of the Themysciran Embassy. Vanessa was also one of the few who knew about Diana's little crush on Superman.

"That's a matter of opinion." Diana lamented.

"So are you going to tell him that you love him and want to have lots of sex and babies tonight?" Vanessa added.

"No. I'm not pining over the guy." She wasn't interested in all of that anyway, not really.

Vanessa leaned close. "You don't know what you're missing. I'm telling you." Vanessa had let Diana in on some 'experimenting' she'd done with her boyfriend over the last few years.

Diana knew exactly what she was talking about now. Sex. "Vanessa if I've told you once I've told you a thousand times. I don't need to sleep with a man to have a good time with him. He and I are above all that. It's refreshing to spend time with someone who doesn't have getting into my pants as his ultimate goal. Friendship, that's what I have with Superman. Does he make me feel some type of way? Yes, but I am in control of my body, and through training and meditation I can overcome any desire of the flesh."

"Who are you trying to convince, me or you? Because I'm not sure." It was obvious she liked the guy, why not go for it?

Diana frowned. While it was true that she had an erotic dream every so often, and Kal was her preferred co-star, those dreams were few and far between. And while she was a little curious, she'd never given serious thought to acting them out. Not even after the night they spent together naked.

"Believe what you want, Vanessa." Diana finally said, picking up her communicator and sending a message that she was ready for transport. Seconds later Diana disappeared. Leaving Vanessa shaking her head.

* * *

Diana re-appeared on the watchtower meeting Kal, dressed impeccably in a black suit and black tie. As usual his sense of humor took center stage, he had a glass of wine in each hand and had a rose in his mouth biting it across the stem.

Diana burst out laughing immediately. He was good for making her laugh, he had the perfect remedy for what had been a rather annoying day so far. She was hoping for a high end, black tie dinner party for two, but then she remembered Kal didn't do anything without putting his own twist on it. She couldn't be mad.

"Hello Kal, you look most handsome this evening." She took the rose and one glass of wine, noticing he wasn't wearing his signature glasses.

"And hello to you Diana, you look more radiant than ever." He said with a sarcastic snootiness that was making fun of high society people more so than her. "Your dinner awaits milady."

He extended his arm for her to hook hers around it, they walked arm in arm to the private dining room where the food was. The only other leaguer they crossed paths with was Michael Holt, aka Mr. Terrific, who paid them no mind. He'd never seen the two of them dressed up quite like this before, but at this point he didn't believe they would ever hook up unless he saw them doing so with his own eyes. Not that it really mattered anyway.

Clark opened the door to the private room. Diana was met with impeccable decorations and beautiful place settings and soft jazz music. "You have gone all out for this haven't you?"

"You asked for black tie. You got it."

"I suppose I did." She ran her fingers across the tablecloth, it was a pretty embossed pattern that had an otherworldly quality to it's fibers. She wondered if it was Kryptonian.

"Please sit." Like a gentlemen, he held her chair, and pushed it in for her after she sat.

"Thank you. So what's on the menu?" She asked.

"See for yourself." Clark sat and pointed to the covered plates on the table in front of them.

Diana wasn't surprised by what she found. A prime rib roast, baked potatoes and assorted vegetables. "Kal, if there's one thing about you, you're yourself."

He smiled. "What do you mean? How could I ever not be myself?"

"Meat and potatoes, that is just so… you. And if you're never not you, I honestly don't know what I'd do with myself." She laughed.

Diana began assembling her plate, the vegetables, a potato and thin slices of the prime rib. While Clark took a big thick cut of meat, the size of a steak, she laughed inwardly. Everything he'd done tonight had been so very typical of the friend she'd known over the past four years.

"Kal, when I suggested a black tie dinner what exactly did you have in mind? This doesn't seem all that different from most other times we've had dinner together."

"I'm literally wearing a black tie. What more do you want?" He joked.

"Kal." She said his name more as a warning than anything else.

"Ok fine, maybe I should have gotten lobster and shrimp or something. But you know what, this cut of beef was not cheap, and you sure didn't offer to help pay. Plus, I had to work all day today. What did you do?"

Diana declined to say that she sat around and watched TV. Something he'd have preferred to do. "I have my work at the embassy."

"No you don't, your mom does everything!" Clark called foul on her. Hippolyta had originally planned to be the ambassador only until Diana was ready, but she enjoyed it so much she simply never left. Diana had plenty of time for charity appearances, or sitting around to do nothing. That is of course when she wasn't averting disasters with the Justice League.

"She… she doesn't do everything. When she goes back to Themyscira I take on all of her responsibilities."

"True, and you do a good job, but she doesn't have to go but every so often. It's not as if they can't function without her."

"Ok fine. Maybe you're a little sour over the fact that you spent so much for someone you're not having sex with tonight." Diana immediately regretted saying that as soon as the words left her mouth.

Clark chuckled lightly, then got quiet.

Diana got quiet too. She chided herself for violating the unspoken rule between them over not mentioning sex. It was always there, since the beginning. The romantic tension that simmered between them. They had never pursued it, rarely spoke of it, but both knew of the feelings that each had for each other. Feelings that hung just below the surface that held more than just friendship.

In many ways it was obvious that the two of them should be together, but in other ways it wasn't. There was constant speculation about them in the media, among their family, and in the Justice League, speculation that they ignored. It wasn't as if they hadn't had the opportunity either, they'd been alone together many times. Once they were forced to spend the night with each other naked. For whatever reason it just never happened.

Hoping to kill the awkward silence Diana changed the subject to something a bit less... Heated. "So how's your novel coming along?"

"Oh here we go with that again." Clark groaned, she'd been giving him grief about his novel ever since he mentioned he wanted to write one.

"It's been two years, do you even have an outline?"

"I started one, I really need to get into a better habit of writing down my ideas. I've forgotten better stuff than most people ever think of."

"Are you going to let me read it?" Diana asked hopefully.

"Nope."

"No?"

"I won't even let you read the book. I'll publish it under a pseudonym and I'll never tell you what it is." He threatened.

"He says to the woman who has a magic rope that forces one to tell the truth." She said to her food, before directly addressing him. 'If I want it out of you, I can get it."

"See that's why nobody likes you, you always hold that over everyone's head."

"Nobody? Come on Kal, that joke is so tired I don't even…"

The door opened, cutting Diana off from her statement. It was Mera. "Hey you two, sorry to break up your little friend date but that thing we were monitoring, turns out it does matter. Can you help?"

Both Clark and Diana leaned back and groaned in frustration, it was a never ending cycle of people needing help. Both stood to offer whatever assistance the could.


	2. Chapter 2

Both Clark and Diana changed into their iconic suits and joined Mera and John Henry in the monitor room. "What's going on?" They both asked simultaneously, causing Mera to turn curiously.

"A meteor shower is on it's way towards earth. We thought it was going miss us, but apparently the planet's gravitational pull changed it's trajectory. It's due to hit the Northeastern US and Southeast Canada in about 10 minutes." John Henry explained.

"Why didn't you tell us sooner?" Diana asked.

"We didn't know it was going to happen. It was almost as if it made a sudden course correction." Mera explained.

Clark looked at the screen and followed their extrapolated path. "Huh, that's weird. Any readings that would explain the sudden change?"

"Not from what I can tell, they seem to be regular old space rocks. I can send you down from here, and I have Shayera on call ready to join you if necessary."

"Have they detected it on earth yet?" Diana asked.

"I would imagine they have."

"They'll go into a panic if we don't show." Clark noted. "Let's get going."

Diana joined him on the transporter pad. "At least we got to eat dinner this time."

"At least." He said as they faded to another location.

* * *

Just like she could get her armor to appear out of nowhere, Diana could also get weapons. She called a heavy battle mace into her hand, made from some kind of Olympian metal. She and Superman were hovering above the clouds waiting for Hawkgirl.

"The pot roast was good, can I could take some of it home?" She asked.

"Sure. That'll make a hell of a sandwich."

"Will you two get serious?" Hawkgirl approached them from behind. "We've got a crisis on our hands and all you can think about is sandwiches?"

Clark was a little embarrassed that Shayera heard that, but Diana wasn't. "Don't worry, we're ready. Kal, how should we do this?"

When a situation was at hand, the humorous farm boy disappeared quickly. When lives were at stake he became their fearless leader. Ready with a plan at the drop of a hat. "I'll break the atmosphere and do what I can to deflect everything away from the planet. Anything that gets past me, put it in the water or smash it to bits."

"You got it." Shayera said, raising and charging her mace.

"Ok. Be careful Kal."

He didn't even look back at her before he sped off, Diana didn't really expect him to. He was in Superman mode, ready to get the job done. There would be time for humor or sentiment later. Shayera however took the opportunity to take a dig at Diana.

"Be careful Kal." Shayera said mocking Diana's swoon, causing the Amazon to glare at her.

Before she could say anything else several meteors came hurtling towards them. Diana sped towards the biggest one and swung her mace into it. Causing the meteor to shatter into dust. Her mace, made on Themyscira had magical properties on it designed to devastate whatever it hit. Shayera was a little jealous, her Nth Metal was nice, and pretty effective but she had nothing on Diana's. Not only that Diana was a bit stronger too.

It took Shayera several blows to accomplish what Diana did. The meteors were pulverised into small bits. A warning was sounded to keep people indoors on the ground, but even then if anyone got hit it wouldn't be overly dangerous.

Out in space, Superman was doing his best to keep the largest ones away from the planet. Instead of smashing them like Diana and Shayera were doing, he was trying to just push them out of the path of earth. So far, only six or seven had gotten past him, and those were relatively small. Every time he checked on Shayera and Diana, he saw that they were having a relatively easy time with them. More or less, this was a simple task.

* * *

Back on the watchtower, Shayera went to go get into a shower, while Clark and Diana stood around talking.

"Dessert?" Diana asked, wondering if he had planned for it.

"Oh, I didn't have anything set up, but I'm sure we could get something. You want to?"

"On second thought, nevermind I'm covered in space dust. I should hop in the shower myself. Maybe we can do something this weekend if you're not busy?" Diana suggested.

"Yeah we can do that. No problem."

"Alright, bye Kal." Diana headed quickly for the showers.

Clark stood silently for a few minutes, ignoring John Henry and Mera who were sitting silently in the room, before deciding to be sent to Metropolis. He would spend the rest of the night relaxing if he could.

Once he left, Mera turned to John Henry. "They're still not dating?"

"Nope." John Henry didn't even take his eyes off the screen.

"I always wondered why." Mera mused.

"Why what?"

"They never hooked up. They obviously like each other, why not go for it you know?"

John Henry long stopped wondering if Clark and Diana would ever get together, but he decided to humor Mera, who spent the vast majority of her time in Atlantis. "They got their situation worked out, maybe they don't want to ruin a good thing."

"Yeah there's that, but it seems like they're selling themselves short."

"Hey, I don't know."

"Is Clark seeing someone else maybe? I'm pretty sure Diana isn't."

"Not that I know of."

"Aren't you two friends? Wasn't he the one who inspired you to step up and fight for justice?"

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean we hang out all the time. We watch football, stuff like that."

"Oh, right." Mera still didn't get human male bonding, and doubted she ever would.

* * *

The next day Clark was finishing his day at work. As he gathered up his things to prepare to go home for the weekend, Lois Lane came seemingly from out of nowhere to stop him.

"Clark! I need a favor from you."

"What kind of favor?" Far too often she asked for things he didn't want to do.

"I have a blind date tonight, and I want you to be my bodyguard."

Clark considered it for a moment. "No."

"Come on Clark I need you on this, because for whatever the hell reason when you're around I don't need Superman to save me." Lois begged.

"That's because I believe in leaving before things get too dangerous." Clark reasoned.

"Look, I'll buy you dinner. I just want you to check him out make sure he's not a mutant."

"Ok, now you've said something, a free meal can get you places. Dinner from where?"

"Breezy Blues."

"No deal, their food sucks." It was a semi-upscale place with expensive food that came in small portions and quite frankly wasn't that good anyway.

"Work with me here Clark, he's a doctor that's where he wanted to go. Look just go to the bar like 10 minutes ahead of me, have a few drinks, check the guy out and I'll text you when you have the ok to leave."

"And if he's a crazy?"

"You act crazier." Lois explained. "Play the whole crazy ex-con boyfriend routine."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah. we've done it before."

"That was you!" Clark's date had actually been going well until Lois showed up, and ultimately scared the woman away.

"She was a slut Clark."

"I know."

"And she tormented me in high school."

"See you should've let me seal the deal and then I would just not call her back."

They'd had this conversation before, but Lois was unrelenting. "No, no, she's a slut, sluts love it when you don't call them back. She didn't even deserve the pleasure of sleeping with you."

"Whatever, the food at Breezy's still sucks."

"Ok fine Clark, I'll take you to lunch on Monday, we'll go to your favorite place, and sit at the bar where ducklips can bat her eyes at you." Lois relented.

"I can work with that, and her name is Jenna by the way." The bartender at his favorite place had a thing for Clark,, but he never made any sort of move on her.

"I can't remember her name Clark, she has ducklips that's all I know."

She didn't have ducklips actually she was cute, but Clark decided to keep his mouth shut. Lois could a really nice person, when she wanted to be, but sometimes she got obnoxious. He often found it best to just roll with the punches.

He went into the restaurant a few minutes before Lois was supposed to meet her blind date and was able to get a seat at the bar. This place didn't really have traditional bar food, so he simply ordered a beer.

He and Lois were the best of friends. Lois began working at the Daily Planet just a few months before he did, and at first they were rivals, jockeying for position as the top reporter. She had an ability to bring out the passion and fire in him that few others could so easily. Their co-workers hated being around them, because they always seemed to be at each others throats. Until one day, Cat Grant came out and said, 'You two should just bone and get it over with.' So they did, and things cleared up after that.

They realized they had a lot in common and actually really liked each other. They dated for months, until Clark realized that as much as he loved spending time with Lois, he was never in love with her, and never would be. He explained that he wanted to be part of her life, but thought he could best do that as her friend. In an act that totally solidified their friendship, Lois understood.

As Lois and her date, Dr. Justin Carroll began to converse Clark could tell they would hit it off quickly. He seemed like a decent guy, clean cut, educated private practice doctor, and an army brat like Lois. Thanks to her background check, it was known he made decent money, had no criminal record, and wasn't in serious debt.

A text from Diana buzzed to his phone. '_Found something else. Meet us at the tower when you can. Di.'_

He texted Diana back a quick 'ok' before paying for his drink and leaving. He could have just left Lois alone, she would have been fine, but he decided to let Justin know what he was in for.

He came up behind her, "Hey Lois. He's not a mutant, can I go now?" Then he turned to Justin, "Hey man, how's it going?"

"Thank you Clark." Lois growled, her voice full of frustration. "I will see you at work on Monday."

"Will do, you two have a nice evening." Clark strode off, smiling to himself.

"Who was that?" Justin asked.

"That was Clark. One of my co-workers."

"Let me guess you asked him to stick around to make sure I wasn't crazy?"

"Maybe."

Justin laughed, it was rather amusing. "Well alright."

"Sorry about that, but these days a girl has got to be smart. Clark's a sweet guy, a little tactless, but sweet."

"Hey it's all good. This online dating this is a bit of a crapshoot, I was a little worried that you didn't look anything like your picture. But I am happy to see that you're even more lovely in person. And I'm glad he came up here, because now I know not to mess with you, because Clark is a big guy."

"Yes he is, 6'4 235." Lois warned.

"Oh a real linebacker."

"I think he played quarterback, or was it cornerback? I can't remember. Anyway… let's get back to us."

The rest of the date went well, but Justin did wonder a little bit if there was more to Lois and Clark than she led him to believe.

* * *

Clark arrived at the watchtower right after leaving the restaurant. Finding Diana and John Henry in the monitor room staring at the readouts on the screen.

"What's up?" He asked.

"An asteroid." Diana answered.

"An asteroid?" Clark repeated.

John Henry answered for her. "25 kilometers across, moving on the same path the meteor shower did. It hasn't turned towards earth yet, but I'm thinking it might."

"Ok, so what am I here for?" Clark wondered.

"You're the only one who can do anything about it." said John Henry.

"Do you have anything in the fortress that could help?" Diana queried.

"For an asteroid? Not that I know of, what about Hal or John? They could help."

"We asked about that, Oa wouldn't even tell us where they were. They might be dealing with something serious. Tomar-Re said he'd relay a message to them, but he couldn't promise they'd be able to help us in time."

"So it's all on me?" Clark sighed.

"Nobody else can deal with being out in space for long enough to do anything about it. I can only hold my breath for so long." Diana's body could handle the cold vacuum of space without issue. However she could only hold her breath for about 30 minutes, that is if she didn't strain her muscles too much. She was concerned about her ability to help, while they did have space suits, they were for repairs outside the station, not for any sort of strenuous activity.

"Clark, do you maybe have some kind of Kryptonian space suit? Something Diana could wear?" John Henry wondered.

"No. We tried that already. They're coded to Kryptonians only, and we haven't figured out how to change that yet." Diana explained. "It looks like you're our only option right now Kal."

Clark sighed. "When will it hit?"

John Henry pointed to the screen, "If it continues to follow the same path as the meteor shower, it'll hit the earth in 4 days."

"So we've got three to come up with a plan. I'm headed to the fortress to see what I can learn from there." Clark turned to leave.

"I'll go with you." Diana followed.

* * *

The two of them were transported into the earth's atmosphere and flew several thousand miles to the site of the fortress. He always preferred that no one get too close to it, and rarely allowed visitors which meant if they stopped by it meant they had to know exactly where it was. The senior members of the Justice League had been inside several times, but only as invited. Diana however was always welcome, and was given access to all areas of the Fortress. Clark had appointed her it's caretaker in the event that something ever happened to him. He had some pretty dangerous equipment that could never fall into the wrong hands.

Immediately upon stepping inside, Diana kicked off her boots. For two reasons, one, she felt quite at home here, and two because the floor was incredibly comfortable. It held it's shape even under immense pressure, but something soft such as walking across it felt like jello on the bottoms of her feet. It was a material like no other, one that she wished she could put into her room at the embassy and in her room on Themyscira.

"How would they deal with something like this on Krypton?"

"I'm not sure, that's why I'm here. Space travel was outlawed at a couple hundred years before I was born. But there had to be sometime where they were faced with some sort of threat from the outside and didn't just let it happen."

Diana wondered how he coped with the fact that he was the only surviving Kryptonian outside of the maniacs imprisoned in the Phantom Zone. He rarely spoke of the destruction of his planet of origin, but when he did it always seemed to be a lament about their short sightedness. Maybe it was his sense of humor, that his laughter was more like tears of a clown. Sometimes she wondered.

She watched him silently as he read through his Kryptonian database, looking for any sort of precedent for dealing with a threat such as the one they were facing. She couldn't read the symbols that were racing across the screen, but could tell that Kal had zeroed in on something. She could see one particular symbol that kept popping up, and noticed that his eyes were drawn to it every time.

"You found something, what is it?" She asked.

"Not something, someone."

"Who?"

"Zeera Jo-Lack, she was an astronaut, one first prisoners in the Phantom Zone."

"They locked her up for being an astronaut?" Diana wondered, Kal always said the Kryptonians were harsh but that seemed a little much.

"No, they locked her up for murdering 40 people."

"Oh my."

"The Phantom Zone is home to 344 criminals, which is actually relatively few, but it was basically the death penalty. These people are the worst of the worst, which is why I'm second guessing myself."

"What are you second guessing?"

"Bringing her out of the zone and asking her for help."

"Is that wise?"

Clark rubbed his hands together. "I don't really think so, which is why I'm going to get a second opinion."

Diana knew what that meant by now, he was going to ask Bruce. It wasn't a bad idea Bruce was a smart guy whose opinion held weight with each of them. He was also probably aware of the asteroid situation by now, and was probably coming up with a plan himself.

"Well that didn't take long." Diana moved to put her shoes back on.

"Nope, back to the watchtower it is."

* * *

In a secure room, inaccessible to the Justice League freshmen Clark, Diana and Bruce convened. Bruce was pacing back and forth. "You said it yourself, you don't think it's a good idea to bring this lady out of her prison. Even if you douse he with red sunlight, and have Diana as backup, it's still not a good idea."

Clark simply nodded his head. Bruce hadn't told him anything he didn't already know, he was more or less looking for vindication. After all, Diana hadn't said anything either way.

"You know, you could always just put the damn thing into the Phantom Zone." Bruce said after a minute.

"Oh." Diana raised her eyebrows.

"Wow, I really didn't think of that one." Clark mused.

"You know that just might work." Diana turned and said. "Sometimes the simple answers are the best."

Clark looked back and forth between Bruce and Diana. "You're right. I mean I could always just fly out there and smash the thing, but this is probably the best solution. So in a not so ironic twist, I'm headed back to the fortress."


	3. Chapter 3

After several back and forth trips to the fortress of solitude, everything was all set. Clark was convinced that this would be finished in no time. He hovered quite a ways ahead of the asteroid with the Phantom Zone projector, using it's scanner to dial in the beam he needed to capture it. Diana was also there, holding position about 26 kilometers away from him, just outside of the asteroid's path. She was there for backup, in case Kal needed anything she would race in to assist. But Kal was quite confident.

"This will be easy." Clark's muffled voice came through Diana's helmet. "I don't need some willpower ring to do this."

"Don't underestimate the power of will Kal. John and Hal both say it's the most powerful weapons in the universe."

He adjusted the clear mask on his face, worn only so he could communicate with Diana and the watchtower. "I wasn't underestimating it, I was simply noting that I can deal with this on my own."

"On Bruce's idea."

"Hey, it was a good idea. One thing I will give him, he never lets his humanity hold him back. In fact he uses it to his advantage, he doesn't have options that we have in a crisis, his solutions are drastically different than ours. While we were thinking of solutions using magic and ancient science he thought of the simple way."

"I suppose you're right. Do you have it locked in yet?"

"Yes, starting the beam now. Stand by."

Clark turned the knob to unleash the beam of light that would pull the targeted object into the phantom zone.

"How long should it take?" Diana asked.

"Should be just a few seconds, but it doesn't seem to be working."

"Why not?"

"I have no clue." He was tempted to start randomly pressing buttons and turning knobs but then he remembered that the Phantom Zone was full of homicidal maniacs. He really didn't want to let any of them out, and definitely not anywhere near yellow sunlight. "Diana come get this thing."

Diana surged forward towards him as fast as her space suit would allow. Clark met her halfway and passed her the projector.

"Get back to the tower." Clark demanded.

"What are you going to do? Reassess and try again?"

"Nope. We thought this was a simple answer, but I'm going for an even simpler one."

"What is that?"

"I'm just going to go smash the thing. Hit it at it's weakest point and just core right through it. You're welcome to help, but get the projector inside I don't want that thing getting damaged." He didn't even wait around for her answer, he just sped off in the other direction giving himself room to build up speed to hit the asteroid.

"Kal, stop! Think about what you're doing! There's got to be a better plan than this."

"Look I just want to get this damn thing finished. I've got better things to do with my time than deal with an asteroid."

"Damnit Kal!" Diana shouted in vain, he'd made up his mind. For some reason however he seemed even more stubborn than she'd ever seen him.

"Well if it doesn't work, you can say 'I told you so' you love saying that anyway."

"I'd rather not say it. I just want you to come back in one piece." Diana retreated back to the watchtower. She second guessed herself all the way, she had an ominous feeling about this. There had to be some kind of reason the Phantom Zone projector wasn't working. There had to be some reason Kal was being so impatient. Usually she was the one who had to be talked out of doing something rash.

"I'll be fine." Clark then took out the earpiece and removed the mouth cover that allowed him to talk to her.

Diana heard the click of the communicator being turned off, "Kal why are you being so stupid!"

"Did it work?" Oliver Queen walked into the corridor just outside the airlock Diana had just exited.

"No." Diana held the projector towards him. "He's got it in his head he'll just smash the thing."

"Seems like a good plan to me." Ollie shrugged.

"Easy for you to say." Diana huffed. As far as she was concerned, Ollie couldn't fathom the risk Kal was taking right now. Right now even Kal didn't know. She activated her communicator and called the monitor room.

"Operator." Dinah Lance answered the call, on duty for the evening.

"Lock onto Kal's position and keep track of him."

"Will do, wasn't he dealing with the asteroid? I figured he'd be done by now." Dinah frowned.

"No he's decided to be obtuse. It may be nothing, but keep track of him until this is over."

"What's he going to do?"

"I think he's just going to fly right into the thing."

"Ok?" Dinah didn't see what the big deal was. "He'll be fine. You of all people should know that. But you'll be the first to know what happens."

Diana cut off the earpiece, somehow more concerned than she normally would be. "He'll be fine. He's Kal, he's Superman. Right?" She told herself.

* * *

Clark had created more than enough distance to fly into the asteroid's weak point at near top speed. He ignored the voice in the back of his head reminding him he had 3 more days to figure out how to deal with this situation, and he ignored Diana. For whatever reason he felt extremely confident in himself, and he also felt extraordinary strong. There was no better time then now to finish the job.

He accelerated rapidly, arms extended in front of him, and heat vision pushing at

full blast directed at a specific spot on the asteroid. He would hit it, and it would shatter into tiny pieces and then he and Diana would go find some pound cake. He may have had a minor setback, but he was in for an easy day.

Diana couldn't bear to look out the window to see Kal's approach. She just paced back and forth waiting for Dinah to give her some bad news. Kal was too stubborn for his own good, why now of all times would he act like this?

Without warning the entire space station shifted violently. Diana was thrown from where she was standing into the wall where she created a large dent in the metal, and was tossed around like a ragdoll before she got her wits about her and took to the air avoiding the tumbling structure around her.

Clark's impact with the asteroid totally decimated it. Sending large chunks of it in every direction. The force from the blow knocked the watchtower totally out of it's orbit, and destroyed several tv satellites in the process.

Dinah was laying on her side on what was the floor of the monitor room, the station had flipped out of orbit without warning. Her hip was in pretty serious pain, she flipped over several times and landed right on it. Aside from the searing pain she was getting a boatload of distress calls from all over the station, on the ground and in orbit. A partially cracked screen that was sitting next to her showed that the International Space Station had taken some damage from the explosion and the people living on it were in desperate need of assistance. Even with what may be a broken hip, Dinah was going to do her duty, and her first priority was the people on the I.S.S. who she immediately worked on transporting over here.

Diana figured when Dinah didn't answer her calls it meant that she was busy helping those more in need than the League members here on the satellite. She could hear the disorientation throughout the corridors and through her earpiece. None more displeased by the occurrence than Hawkgirl, who had been in bed sleeping. However no one seemed to be seriously injured, they were more surprised than anything.

The forefront of her mind was Kal, if the watchtower was flipped over like that, how was he? Her mind played through the scenarios, either he was perfectly fine and would be waiting outside the airlock with a smile on his face, or he'd be in bad shape. She desperately hoped he would be there smiling. That way she could smack him for causing all this mayhem.

Since the watchtower had completely turned over and hadn't righted itself yet she had to make her way clear to the other side of it to get to him. Her trek to the airlock was an adventure to say the least, everything that wasn't tied down was now on what was supposed to be the ceiling, including people. Ollie was in a corner holding on for dear life, preparing for the station to automatically turn back over.

"Diana! Can you check on Dinah? She's hurt." He shouted as she passed.

Diana nodded the affirmative, having had no idea that Dinah had been hurt. She'd been giving instructions over the com system since the beginning of everything. Then it occurred to her that he could hear it in her voice, he was clearly concerned about her. So Diana turned around and picked Ollie up and flew him to the monitor room to assist Dinah with whatever she needed. But her focus was still on getting to Kal, no one had said anything about him.

She skipped the spacesuit, took a deep breath and tried to open the airlock, but the door became stuck. She had to squeeze outside and see that there were pieces of the asteroid lodged in the door and the side of the satellite, some of which were glowing bright red. The strange glowing rocks needed to be studied further, but right now she needed to find Kal.

She looked around everywhere, there was nothing but rocks, some glowing red, some not but no sign of Kal anywhere. Where could he be? Diana wondered, flying further into the debris field.

It had taken a few moments, but the watchtower finally reoriented itself. Ollie had gotten Dinah to the infirmary and took over in the monitor room, first running a diagnostic on the station. It shouldn't have flipped over like that, in a situation where it was knocked out of orbit the artificial gravity was supposed to disengage. But instead it was locked into place, with the gravity pulling towards the direction of earth, causing everything to turn with it.

Next he carried out Dinah's demand that he tell Diana where Clark was. "Operator to Wonder Woman. Superman's location is in the Mojave Desert, and it doesn't look like he's moving."

Diana wasn't wearing a space suit or a breathing mask so she couldn't respond to Ollie, so she simply made a beeline towards the Mojave.

Ollie guessed that Diana wasn't wearing anything to allow her to talk in space, after she didn't respond, but he knew she got the message when her com signal darted towards the location he'd given her. He knew that she and Clark were only friends, but it was odd sometimes the lengths they went for each other that they were only that. But he only let his mind wander for a few seconds, there was a lot to deal with. Reports were coming in from all over that bits of the asteroid had fallen to earth and caused damage and injuries, but so far no deaths… yet.

Diana found Superman on the ground not moving. She identified him by his red cape blowing in the light breeze. She ran to him and turned him from his side onto his back and recoiled in horror at what she saw. He looked nothing like himself. His eyes were swollen shut, and he had a large knot on his forehead. His nose was dripping blood and looked like it was broken.

She had seen him beaten up before, after a battle with a powerful enemy but never like this. Right now he looked like a washed up boxer who got in the ring with the young new champion when he really should have stayed on the sofa. Diana was a little frightened if she was honest with herself.

"Wonder Woman to watchtower, bring us up now! I need to get straight to the infirmary."

Ollie chimed in. "Operator to Wonder Woman, standby for immediate transport."

Seconds later Diana was carrying an unconscious Superman into sickbay where Dr. Midnight was on duty.

"Get him on the table!" He shouted, and quickly ushered Diana out so he could get to work.

Diana left the room and stood outside the examining room looking through the window, worried out of her mind for her friend. She couldn't watch for long however because Dr. Midnight had to shut off the lights in order to work.

* * *

The next few hours were a blur to Diana, after Dr. Midnight did all he could Dr. Kimiyo Hoshi was called in to take over. Diana was called in to help set the broken bones in both of Clark's arms and help to remove a piece of red rock that had embedded itself into the swollen knot on his forehead.

Then she left for earth to make a statement about the falling meteors and help with the efforts to reduce the panic, and clear some of the damage. She worked through the night trying to assure everyone that there was nothing else to fear, that everything would be alright, but internally she was in turmoil. There had been no word of anything about Kal waking up. All she had to go on was that his heart was still beating.

Eventually she was able to return to him to see with her own eyes that he was still there. His injuries had cleared up somewhat from being placed under strong UV lights, but not completely.

"Damnit Kal, why didn't you listen?" She said fighting back tears. "I swear if you weren't laid up here like this I'd hurt you."

The feelings Diana had just now were not lost on her. Amazons did not cry, not over pain, or loss or anything. She'd seen her sisters get injured many times in her life, even her mother, but not once could she remember a time when she came even close to shedding a tear. But seeing Kal looking bandaged, beaten and unconscious touched her in a very different place. A place that made it perfectly clear that what she felt for him was more than just friendship.

"He'll be alright. He's Superman." Dr. Hoshi said softly as she came in to check on Clark.

"That's what I keep telling myself." Diana said after a moment.

"Dinah is going to be fine by the way. Just a bruise, I sent her home. So it seems you have the place to yourselves. I'm going to go see if I can help Bruce and John Henry identify that red substance that's everywhere, will you keep an eye on him?"

"Yes. If anything changes I'll let you know immediately."

Once Kimiyo left Diana changed from her battle armor into a set of pajamas and climbed into the adjacent bed. She closed her eyes and attuned her ears to the sound of his heart monitor. Before drifting to sleep she said a silent prayer asking Apollo to give Kal healing.


	4. Chapter 4

Bruce, John Henry, Kimiyo and Shayera all sat in a room around an examining table with a chunk of the red rock on it. John Henry had spent the last several hours examining it, and was now giving his assessment.

"And you're positive?" Kimiyo asked.

"I'm not positive about anything, but I can't see how it could be anything else." John Henry shrugged.

"It's got most of the same properties." Bruce confirmed.

"So you're saying we're looking at red kryptonite?" Shayera asked.

"Based on the way Clark looked, I'd be inclined to say so. He looked like a slab of meat in Rocky." Kimiyo added.

"Rocky?" Shayera questioned.

"It's a boxing movie." John Henry answered. "Bruce has he told you anything about Red Kryptonite?"

"Never." Bruce shook his head. "We should get Diana. She may know something."

"I'll go. I should check on Clark anyway." Kimiyo said, walking out of the room.

* * *

Diana awoke to a gentle hand on her shoulder. She jumped up immediately. "Kal?"

Kimiyo tried to calm her. "No. It's just me."

"Is he?" She couldn't even get the words out.

"No changes. His breathing is fine and the swelling has gone down significantly. But there is something that we want you to look at. Can you follow me?"

"Yes." Diana followed Kimiyo out of the room, gently squeezing Kal's hand before she left, silently promising him that she'd return.

"Are you okay Diana? You seem a little…" She couldn't quite find the right word.

"I'm just not used to seeing him like this. If anything, I should be right next to him just as beat up."

"He'll make it. Don't worry."

The two women were silent as they made their way to the examining room on the other side of the watchtower, where the others were. Diana walked into the room and immediately remembered about the glowing red rocks she'd seen embedded in the sides of the station after seeing a rather large one sitting on the table.

"Have you figured out what it is?" Diana asked.

Bruce answered first. "Yes. Kryptonite."

"What? Why is it red?"

"We were hoping you would know." John Henry spoke up.

"No, what makes you think it's Kryptonite?"

"The shape, it's reaction to UV lights, and aside from a few differences it's the same chemical makeup as the green stuff."

"What differences?" Diana wondered, that could explain why the Phantom Zone projector didn't work.

"The difference is, that this has something similar to the chemical makeup of tar." John Henry answered. "But with this equipment we can't be certain."

"John's ring could help us." Everyone looked at Shayera as she spoke up for the first time. She and John Stewart's relationship was more confusing than Clark and Diana's. "Or Hal's."

"Well they're not here. If this is Kryptonite we have to get Kal off the station!" Diana shouted, as if she just now realized what they were looking at.

"We don't know how this may affect him." Bruce tried to add.

"It could be killing him! We have to move him now, as long as this is here Kal is in danger. I'll take him home, and stay with him until he wakes up. Kimiyo if you can help him please do, but he has to be away from this."

Diana didn't even wait for them to discuss it further, she hurried back up to sickbay.

"She's right." Bruce said.

"Yeah." John Henry agreed. "Sometimes we look at things too scientifically. We should have told her sooner. Hopefully we didn't do more damage to him by keeping him here."

"He's got to be close to the green stuff to be affected by it. We're three decks away. Why wouldn't this be any different?" Bruce asked. "We can't jump to conclusions, not yet."

"Either way we should start gathering up the red kryptonite, from the station and from earth. Who knows what someone might do with it." Shayera suggested.

"That's a good idea. We've got reports from several places that were hit by pieces of this asteroid. We should put together a list, check them out as quickly as we can. And as quietly." John Henry added, causing everyone to look at Bruce.

Bruce crossed his arms. "Quietly huh? I can help with that."

* * *

With some help from Kimiyo, Diana was able to get Clark moved to his apartment. Far away from the Kryptonite, Metropolis had been hadn't been hard hit by the aftermath of him and the asteroid so she figured him to be safe from any that was on the ground. Although she did need to come up with a decent excuse as to why Clark Kent was out like this, just in case one of his friends came by. But in the meantime, she made herself at home promising herself that she wouldn't leave his side until he awoke.

Pain, excruciating unrelenting, full bodied pain is what Clark found himself in. It hurt to move, it hurt to breathe, it hurt to think. His moved his eyes throughout the unfamiliar room, trying to figure out where he was. Nothing looked familiar, nothing smelled familiar, it was a little bit frightening to wake up in intense pain and not know where he was.

One strange thing however, was that there was another person in the bed with him. Sleeping, right on the edge of the bed, as if the slightest movement would send them tumbling to the floor. The figure looked distinctly female, but then again he could only see the back of the head. He tried to sit up and get a closer look, but he fell right back into the bed. His spine felt like it was on fire.

"Ow!" He shouted, with a cracking voice.

The noise brought Diana right out of her light slumber. She'd been with him all day, and hadn't had any sleep. She had planned only to rest her eyes briefly, but ended up laying on the edge of the bed, careful not to touch him.

"Kal you're awake! How do you feel?"

"Who are you?"

She was a little taken aback. "My name's Diana, you don't remember me?"

"No, I feel like I'd remember eye candy like you. I mean whoa baby!" He said groggily. "Are you a model?"

"No?" Why was he talking like this?

"You are the most smoking hot beautiful woman I've ever seen."

Diana smiled in complete surprise, he'd complimented her on her appearance before but never quite like that. She didn't know how to react other than giggling like a schoolgirl.

"Baby you are built for lovin'. What are you doing here, and where are we anyway." He seemed completely delirious.

"This is your apartment, and I'm your girlfriend." The first part came naturally, the second just left her mouth before she could even control it. It was as if someone else spoke the words on her behalf, and before she could try to take them back he ran with it.

"You're **my** girlfriend!? Holy shit! I hit the jackpot!" Clark shouted in a cracking high pitched voice.

Diana was so stunned by what she had just said she was unable to speak again, she just stood there.

"Come closer, let me get a look at your face."

She must have been having an out of body experience because she did exactly what he asked without hesitation.

"Whoa you're teeth are perfect!" He eyed her up and down, lingering at her chest for an extra few seconds. "Turn around for me."

Finally something brought Diana back into the real world. "No."

"Aw come on baby. Do we call each other baby?"

"Not really."

"How long have you been my girlfriend?"

"Not long, we keep it a secret." _Oh Hera, I did it again. What am I saying? What is wrong with me? _

"A secret from who?"

"Ok, you're clearly delirious, just try to stay still and go back to sleep. I'm going to call the doctor and tell her you're awake. I'll be right back I promise." Diana spun around and headed towards the door.

"Oh baby you've got everything! Ooowee! I know exactly why I was liking you!"

Diana tried to ignore his compliments on her posterior as she exited the room, but had to admit comments from a completely out of it Kal were far better than anyone else speaking to her that way.

Diana got in contact with the watchtower. "Kimiyo, yes he's awake. He's completely out of it, and in a lot of pain but he's awake."

"Ok, just try to keep him still, and in the sunlight." Kimiyo didn't know the first thing about Kryptonian physiology, and since pain medication didn't work on him that was the only solution she had.

"Not a problem." There was no way Diana was going to tell anyone what just transpired seconds ago.

She popped back in on Kal a few minutes later and saw that he was doing as she requested, his breathing was steady and suggested he was sleeping again. She padded into the kitchen and made herself a cup of coffee. It was the middle of the day so it wasn't as if she needed it, she just needed to occupy herself for a few minutes while she figured out what just happened.

"What is wrong with me? Why did I just say that?" Diana paced back and forth in the kitchen trying to rationalize what just happened. "Ok, I just told a little white lie to explain why I was here with him, but he's completely off his rocker right now, when he wakes up again he'll be himself, and he'll know we never dated. I'll explain everything and by tomorrow we'll be laughing about this. Perfect." Diana mixed her cream and sugar into her coffee and sat on the couch feeling much better.

As she sank down into the couch sipping her coffee, she let her mind wander a little bit. Would dating Kal be so bad? Of course not. They spent plenty of time together, they liked each other, and were physically attracted to each other. And she knew that it wasn't a one sided attraction either, his lustful ramblings of a few minutes ago were the 100% truth. He'd made her aware of how he felt about her looks on the night they were forced to spend together naked, he hadn't used so many words but his body's reaction to hers spoke loudly.

They spent their time together on the watchtower or the fortress, if they were to date, she would need to be with Clark Kent. Wonder Woman dating Superman would be a hassle that neither wanted to deal with. Could that work? She considered the possibility of putting on a human disguise and playing like a normal human. It could be fun, she'd done it a few times, but that was simply so she could blend in with Bruce and Kal.

Diana shook her head dismissing those thoughts. She chalked her fumbling of words to the part of her brain that was interested romantically in Kal. She admitted to herself that if she were to date anyone he would be the first choice, but that was it. Kal was loopy when he awoke, and was only awake for a few minutes. He'd probably totally forget their conversation when wakes up next. All would be just fine, and as it was, they'd laugh about it soon.

* * *

"Hey! Are you still here?" Kal's voice brought Diana out of a haze that she'd fallen into for a while. She immediately jumped up to go to him.

He was sitting up in bed when she got there, seemingly without much pain. And he had a very puzzled look on his face. "What do you need?"

"Awesome, you're really here, that wasn't a dream. So if you're Diana, my smoking hot girlfriend. Who am I?"

Diana's mouth dropped open. "That is so not good."

"No it isn't. I feel like I should know my own name. What's going on?"

"Your name is Clark Jerome Kent. You hit your head, I think you have amnesia."

"Oh." He looked around confused, taking everything in. "How did I hit my head."

Before Diana could answer, the cell phone on the table beside Clark started buzzing. "Who is that?" Diana asked as Clark reached to pick up the phone.

"Lois Lane, 'Coming up, put on pants.' Who is Lois Lane? And what does pants have to do with anything." Clark tried to remember anyone by that name but was simply drawing a blank.

"Uh, you two work together." Diana didn't know what to do with herself, she didn't want to leave Clark alone, but didn't want Lois to see her here either. She was going to instruct Clark to tell her it's a bad time, but she heard the door open a few seconds later. Lois had a key.

"Hey Clark, I'm sure you've gotten the call already. Chief needs us to check out this meteor shower thing. Hurry up, I brought donuts." Lois walked in like she owned the place, not caring how much noise she made. She always made a point to yell when she used the key to clearly identify herself. Lois walked through the apartment, looking for any sign of Clark. She turned the corner to see a woman walking out of Clark's bedroom.

"Oh my. Hello."

"Hello." Diana greeted politely.

"I'm his coworker. He gave me a key, I gave him a key to my place. But there's nothing going on between us." Lois wanted to make it perfectly clear what was happening. "I got a call from work and figured we'd catch a cab together."

Diana looked down at herself, and realized what was happening. She was still wearing pajamas, loose sweat pants and a tank top, and with her uncombed hair it looked like she'd slept here.

"Oh it's fine. I know who you are. I'm Diana."

"Diana?" Lois tried to place her name and face, she seemed familiar somehow. "Have we met before?"

"Yeah, once. It was Christmastime."

"That's right." Lois snapped her fingers. Clark introduced her as his friend last Christmas, clearly things had changed since then. It was a surprise, Diana was slimmer and more muscular than she'd remembered, but then again she was bundled up in a oversized parka when they briefly met.

"Who are you talking to?" Clark walked out of the room, wearing only a pair of linen hospital pants. Looking groggy and confused.

"Do you remember Lois? You work together at the Daily Planet." Diana stated as diplomatically as she could.

"No." Clark said nonchalantly. "If I didn't remember that I was dating a woman as fine as you why would I remember one of my coworkers?"

Lois was a little offended. But she refrained from reminding Clark that the two of them dated at one time. Not in front of the girlfriend that she knew nothing about.

Diana cringed inwardly about his girlfriend comment, now that Lois knew, it meant she would be even further caught in this web of lies. Had he already forgotten that she said they kept it a secret?

"Clark are you okay?" Lois asked.

"He hit his head last night. The meteor shower." Diana answered for him.

"Oh my god Clark! Is he alright?" Lois became concerned immediately.

Diana answered again. "He's fine it seems, other than the memory loss."

"Memory loss, shouldn't you be at the hospital?"

"He doesn't believe in doctors." Diana informed her, knowing Clark had a built in excuse for things like this. "I got him out as soon as I could."

"Duh, I knew that. Okay, okay… I'm going to go to work, I'll let everyone know what happened. Clark you stay here, and get yourself right. Don't worry about a thing, and if you need anything, anything at all call me. My number is in your phone. It was nice to meet you again Diana." Lois left the apartment quickly.

"Did she leave the donuts? I'm hungry." Clark wondered.

"I told you we kept us a secret!" Diana turned to Clark quickly, with her frustration clearly showing.

"Sorry." Clark recoiled.

"It's alright. I forgive you." Diana had to step back on that, this was after all her fault. "Just promise me you won't tell anyone else."

"Promise."

Diana took a deep breath and rubbed her eyes in exasperation.

"Are you alright?" Clark asked.

"Yes, I'm fine. I just want you to get better. In the meantime, we have a lot to talk about."


	5. Chapter 5

Clark laid in bed with the bag of donuts that Lois had left while Diana paced at the foot of the bed. They were supposed to be talking, but Diana's mind was all over the place.

_Should I tell him about Clark or Superman? Which would be less of a shock to him? And why is he eating in bed? There will be crumbs everywhere, I'm not sleeping on a bed of crumbs. _Diana then stopped pacing and made an exasperated groan. Why was she thinking about sleeping there anyway?

"Are you alright?" Clark finally asked, with his mouth full. "You sure you don't want one?"

"No Kal, I'm not alright. In fact I think I'm losing it."

"Kal?"

"It's what I call you."

"But my name is Clark?"

"Yes, technically both are your names, but I'm the only one who calls you Kal."

"So it's a pet name." He surmised.

"No."

"Ok? Well what do I call you?"

"Diana, just Diana."

"Ok."

"So tell me, what's the last thing you remember?"

Clark answered quickly. "Waking up here and talking to you."

"What about before that? Do you remember anything from your life? Growing up maybe?"

Clark closed his eyes and turned his head up, trying to think. "Donut."

"What?"

"Donut." He held an uneaten donut up, it took a second for her to figure out what he meant but he was using it to symbolize the number zero. Meaning he didn't remember anything. "So you're saying I got hit in the head?"

"More or less."

"Yeah I don't remember any of that. What happened?"

Diana tried to think of the best way to explain this part. "Do you know anything about Superman and Wonder Woman?"

"No?" None of that rang a bell for Clark.

"Well, that's us. We're members of the Justice League."

"I'm called Superman, and you're called Wonder Woman?"

"Yes."

"Ok, so what do we do?"

Diana sat back in thought. "Maybe it's better to just show you."

She grabbed him by the hand and pulled him towards his closet, he told her a long time ago he kept his Superman suits behind a panel in his closet that only he could open. Guiding his hand she led him to the button that opened the wall and displayed several of his Superman armor suits.

"Whoa." Clark was taken aback.

"You don't recognize this at all?" Diana looked at him and didn't see any sort of recognition in his eyes.

"Not at all. I'm supposed to wear this?"

"Yes, you wear the armor and the symbol of the House of El. Put it on, there are some things I want to show you." She stepped out of the closet and gave him space to dress. While away from him she used her abilities to change her clothes into her Amazon armor.

Minutes later Superman emerged from the closet, except for the total confusion he felt. He examined the suit on his body, noticing it was very tight, and left very little to the imagination. He felt self conscious until he saw Diana.

She was stunning before, but wearing a red and gold corset with blue shorts and red knee high boots, she was a total knockout. Clark's mouth dropped open at the sight of her, and suddenly he didn't feel self conscious anymore.

"I let you wear that out of the house?" He asked.

"I wear whatever I want." She said sternly. "Follow me, there are questions you want answered, I will show you rather than tell you."

She led him to the roof of his top floor apartment, where she hovered a few feet above the ground before him.

"What?!" He seemed amazed at her ability to defy gravity. "That's crazy!"

"You can do it too." Diana informed him.

Clark did a standing vertical jump, but only got about 4 feet off the ground before falling back to the roof. Then he tried unsuccessfully a few more times. "I have to be dreaming."

"It's just something that you can do, you can somehow manipulate the gravity around yourself." She explained it to him as best she could. It wasn't the easiest thing to articulate, she couldn't tell someone how she flew she just could.

Before he had a chance to become frustrated, she decided to take charge. She quickly scooped him up and carried him high into the air. After flailing his arms and legs for a few seconds he finally calmed himself, and wrapped his arms around her.

Diana was a bit thrown off by the embrace from Kal, it was rare that they touched each other tenderly. If they weren't sparring the kept physical contact of any kind to a minimum. Their friendship drew a line between them that they were both careful not to cross, but right now Kal had no memory of that line. And to take it even further, she had told him they were in a relationship, basically giving him permission to cross that line.

Diana shook her head and collected her thoughts, the first priority was to get Kal back to normal. She would deal with any repercussions of her word fumbling later. Kal wasn't Kal unless he could fly, and Diana could think of no better way to teach him than this. So like a mother bird, she gave him a shove and let him go.

At first he fell like a brick, screaming like a 10 year old. She had to will herself not to fly down and catch him, not yet anyway. She couldn't let Superman slam into the ground from this height, whatever he landed on would be completely destroyed and it would cause an uproar amongst the people as well. She just needed him to remember this one little thing.

Clark did everything he could think of, kick his feet, flap his arms, everything. The sky was a beautiful and enchanting place when he was held securely in Diana's arms. He could see everything for miles and miles from that height, but now that he was falling the only thing he could focus on was the ground, specifically the spot where he was going to land. But then he noticed things beginning to change, it felt as if his descent was slowing, and the angle that he was falling had shifted. It occurred to him that he wasn't falling anymore, he was flying!

"Whoohooo!" Clark zoomed by Diana with tremendous speed. Suddenly it made perfect sense how he was able to defy gravity like this.

Diana smiled at the look of wonder that Kal had on his face as he passed her. It was a look she rarely saw on him, and today she had seen it twice. Just now, and when she informed him that she was his girlfriend. His smile was infectious, maybe that's why she told the lie she told.

"How's about a little race?" Diana approached him from above. "See who's the fastest? Once around the world."

Clark smiled at her fiendishly. "You're on!"

"Good. On your mark, set….Go!"

Clark was caught off guard by her quick start, she was incredibly fast but he wasn't about to let her off that easy. Using his newfound power he pushed himself forward with everything he had.

Diana used her knowledge about Clark to her advantage, she needed to get as far ahead of him as she could and hope that he wasn't able to tap into his full potential speed. If they were running track, she would be the sprinter and Kal the distance runner. She would blow him away in the 100 meter dash, but he could easily overtake her in the 400. She was more quick twitch in her movements. As she flew she briefly looked back to see where he was, and much to her chagrin he was was unleashing speed enough to be right on top of her, but he didn't seem to be trying to get ahead of her. Instead he charged right at her, causing her to turn in the air and face him.

Clark crashed into her and sent the both of them tumbling through the air. If he weren't smiling so widely she would be a little angry at him. She didn't show it, but he knocked the wind out of her a little bit when they collided. She unwrapped his arms from her and pulled back, only to charge back at him.

For the next twenty minutes or so they did an aerial dance with each other. More playful and enjoyable than anything they'd done together in quite some time. They flipped and twirled and wrestled each other silently trying to prove who was the better flier. In the end it didn't matter all that much, simply due to how much fun they were having with each other. Until she noticed where they were, Diana had almost forgotten where she was planning on taking him, she saw that they just happened to be a few miles away from that very place.

"Follow me!" Diana shouted turning towards a large empty field on the ground.

Clark charged her again, taking them to the ground and sending them rolling across the field while wrapped in each other's arms.

"I'm covered in grass!" Diana lamented after they finally came to a stop, maybe 200 yards from where they hit the ground.

"So am I." Clark said, he ended up laying directly on top of her. "You're still beautiful."

She could only smile, somehow she knew what was going to happen next, and she didn't have the strength to stop it, and if she were honest with herself she wasn't sure if she wanted to anyway. She simply allowed him to lean down to kiss her gently on the lips.

From Clark's point of view he had just met Diana a little while ago, but it occurred to him that they had been dating. He decided it was her prerogative to kiss her if he wanted to. Despite the fact that he couldn't remember who, he was sure that at some point in his life he had kissed a woman before. But the moment his lips touched Diana's he knew that she was somehow different, special.

Diana always wondered what it would be like to really kiss Kal. She had dreamed about it on multiple occasions and had to work to keep from daydreaming about it sometimes. But now that it happened she wondered what was wrong with her. Why didn't she do this before?. He was by far the best kisser she'd ever met. While she didn't have a whole lot of experience she wasn't a complete beginner. She'd been on dates and kissed them from time to time, but never like this. She lied on her back with Kal pinning her to the earth, but she couldn't get enough. When it felt as if he was going to pull away she grabbed him and held him in place. This was the realization of her first fantasy, she wasn't about to let it end until she was ready.

"I suppose this wasn't our first date, but I sure enjoyed myself." Clark finally said out of breath and holding his forehead against Diana's.

"I had a wonderful time." She couldn't help but say.

"So where are we? You said you wanted to show me something." He rolled over and started brushing the dirt and grass off of his uniform.

"We're in Smallville, Kansas the town where you grew up." She sat up and began pulling grass out of her hair. "You don't remember do you?"

"Nothing." He tried to recall, but was only getting a blank.

"Well, I think maybe your parents can help you remember. They should be home, come on."

Clark followed Diana towards the house. He was inclined to believe her that this is where he grew up, but couldn't for the life of him remember anything. Not the house, the old truck under the carport, nor the barn a few yards away from the house. Nothing looked familiar in the least. Diana knocked on the door, and stepped back.

"Clark! Diana! What a surprise, come in come in." Martha answered the door.

"Hello." Clark greeted politely as he walked in.

"Hi sweetheart." Martha gave Clark a big motherly hug. Which Clark was hesitant to reciprocate.

"Are you alright Clark?" Martha stepped back, noticing something off about her son.

"He's having a few issues." Diana answered for him.

"What kind of issues?" Jonathan came in from the other room where he had been watching TV.

Diana spoke while Clark explored the living room as if he'd never seen it before. "He hit his head, has a bit of amnesia."

Martha got a very puzzled look on her face. "What in the world could hit hard enough to give him amnesia?"

Diana sighed loudly, this would be a long night.

* * *

It was the middle of the night when Diana returned to the Embassy building. She had spent hours with the Kents, trying to get him to remember his life before the asteroid to no avail. He couldn't seem to remember any important details from before he woke up in his apartment.

Diana slumped on the couch, wondering what had come over her today. What could have possibly compelled her to tell Kal that they were dating? It simply didn't make any sense. She had thought about being with him, but never seriously considered actually doing it. Partly because she didn't want their friendship to change, but also because she wasn't all that interested in romance anyway. It had always been some sort of escape fantasy, to imagine herself with someone, not always Kal, but mostly. However at the end of the day it was just a fantasy that she was content not to try to live. But here she was, practically forcing herself onto Kal, and not denying what had originally be a slip of the tongue. Perhaps subconsciously she did want a romance?

After two quick knocks, Diana's bedroom door opened and her mother walked in. "Where have you been?"

"Busy. Why?"

"No reason, I was simply curious."

"Oh." Hippolyta was the last person Diana wanted to talk to right now.

Hippolyta sat down next to her daughter. "So tell me, what happened last night. The meteor shower, what is the real story?"

Diana sighed, there was no point in withholding information from Hippolyta. "Kal did it."

"Kal-El caused a meteor shower?" The queen's brow furrowed.

"Not on purpose, there was an asteroid on a collision course with earth. Kal stopped it, in the most stubborn fashion he could find."

"What did he do?"

"He just barreled into it. He destroyed it, but knocked himself out in the process and now he has amnesia."

"Hmm, that does not sound like him at all. But look at things on the bright side, now you can have him how you want." Hippolyta smiled brightly, taking her chance to tease her daughter again.

"What?"

"If he has amnesia, this is your big chance to convince him that the two of you are in love with each other."

"What? I'm… I'm not going to do that."

Hippolyta detected something in her daughter's voice, fear and uncertainty. It was a dead giveaway. "Oh goddess!"

"What?" Diana was becoming agitated now.

"You already did it, didn't you?"

"No." Diana said after an awkward pause, that even she knew didn't fool her mother.

The Queen wasn't convinced for a second, and gave her daughter a look that proved that she wasn't buying it. Then she burst out laughing.

Diana couldn't imagine a time in her life when her mother was more annoying than right now. Did she tangle herself into a giant mess? Yes, but she didn't appreciate being laughed at for it.

"Let me guess you don't approve of him?"

The Queen was taken aback, "How could you ask me such a thing? Of course I approve of Kal-El! I am not the woman I was years ago, and as men go, he is among the best there are. It is you I do not approve of."

"Me?"

"Yes, two days ago you weren't even interested and now you're taking advantage of him like this? It seems rather out of character for you. What happened?"

"I don't know. He woke up and went crazy over me and it just happened, I told him we were together. I can't explain why."

"You haven't been visited by Eros have you?" That was a serious concern, he had a habit of getting in the middle of things he shouldn't.

"No." Unfortunately for Diana that was the truth, there was nothing stealthy about Eros. She would have known if he were there.

"You are a woman now. You are free to make your own decisions for whatever reasons you may have, but you must be careful with this. I was only jesting when I suggested you convince him he is your lover, but it is clear to me, as it has been for some time this is how you truly feel for him. And while I think he feels very strongly for you, he is at a delicate place now."

"Yes." She certainly agreed with that.

"If I were in your position, I would tell him the truth. If not, when his memory does return you risk betraying the trust the two of you shared."

"I know. Thank you mother."

After her mother left Diana got into bed and considered her options. She could tell him the truth, and disappoint him right now. Keep the lie alive and risk ruining everything. She almost hated to admit it, but part of her felt that now that they were together she didn't want to not be anymore. Friendship wasn't enough, his kiss told her that. Just a touch of the lips proved that Vanessa and her mother were right, she did want to be with Kal. Everything else had been an excuse, and now that she admitted it to herself she couldn't even remember her rationale for not pursuing him romantically.

There was also Kal to consider, before his memory loss she was sure he was fighting attraction to her as well. There could be no possible way that he wasn't, why else would he go through so many changes for them to spend time together? Why else would he get awkward when she brought up sex? He was no different, he wanted her too. His memory loss may have opened up the chance he'd been looking for.

Of course there were risks involved. When he does regain his memory he could very well feel betrayed and violated in the worst way. But then again it could turn out wonderful and they could truly fall in love. In Diana's mind, the reward far outweighed the risks.

She decided it was official, she was his girlfriend, and he was her boyfriend.


	6. Chapter 6

Diana had always been a morning person, perhaps because she didn't need a whole lot of sleep, but she was up at the crack of dawn nearly every day, and today was no different. She made a point to be up this early for several reasons, one being that Vanessa was by no means a morning person and she needed to avoid giving away any detail about the recent developments with Kal. But also because she wanted to get to him before he caused any trouble.

She put on a pair of jeans and a sweater, tennis shoes and a pair of highly durable thick framed glasses that she'd received as a birthday gift from Kal a few years ago. It was originally a gag gift, the feminine equivalent to his own glasses in the event that she wanted to try to go incognito. She'd never tried to blend in before, so she'd never worn them until now. But she knew that in order to make this work, she needed to be all in. And to be all in she needed to be not only Kal's girlfriend, but Clark's too.

She stood in her full length mirror looking over her appearance with a smile. She couldn't hide her height, or her full figure but she expected that the glasses would throw people off just enough to not immediately think she was Wonder Woman. After all Kal had done it for decades and hadn't been made yet. She could hide out for a little while, besides she would have to teach him how to be human all over again. This would probably be a bit of a lesson for both of them.

* * *

Clark was up early, exploring his apartment. He'd spent most of last night with his parents, learning about his life growing up. Martha and Jonathan were awesome people, and although he still couldn't remember any details he was sure he had a great childhood. However none of that stopped him from being frustrated. He was a grown man, and couldn't remember anything from before yesterday. He couldn't remember the person he was, how he acted, anything.

He was standing in the mirror trying on his glasses when he heard Diana enter from the rooftop.

"Good morning. I wasn't expecting you to be awake yet." Diana greeted.

"I've been up all night." He didn't take his eyes off the mirror.

"You could have called me. I would have been here right away."

"No, it's alright. I was just thinking. How do I do it?"

"Do what?"

"Balance being three entirely different people? I'm just one guy, and I don't even know myself anymore. If I have these huge burdens and secrets how am I supposed to keep everything together?"

"With my help. You're not three men, you're just one. It doesn't matter whether you're called Superman, Clark Kent, or Kal."

"My parents, they said I'm a Kryptonian, the only one left. Is that true, am I really alone?" He more or less fell down onto the foot of the bed.

"You are from Krypton, and you haven't found another, but you're never alone." She sat down next to him, and took his hand into hers.

Clark smiled. "How long have we been dating again?"

"Not long, but we've been close for years. And until you get your memory back I'm not going anywhere, I can promise you that."

"That's good to hear. So do you have any ideas to speed this process up? I'm 31 years old, do you know how frustrating it is to not know anything?"

"How did you know you were 31 years old? I didn't tell you, and neither did your parents."

"You didn't'? Hmm, I don't know."

"Well, you haven't lost everything. I mean let's face it Kal, you did go head first into an asteroid made of Kryptonite."

"Yeah, what is up with that? And why exactly are we telling two stories of how I got hurt? I'm not quite clear on that."

"I have no idea what possessed you to fly into the asteroid in the first place, it was like something took over, you weren't yourself. Wait a minute…" Diana stood and looked pensive as something suddenly came to her attention. "Kryptonite. Maybe that was it!"

"What exactly is kryptonite anyway?" Clark asked with an eyebrow raised, this was the second time she'd mentioned it.

"They're radioactive pieces of your home world, they're deadly to you when you're close to them. They're usually green, but we found some red inside the asteroid. Maybe it effects you differently."

"I'm highly confused."

"I know, in a lot of ways so am I, but it'll be ok." Diana tried to assure him. Then she stood up, and silently called on her armor.

"Wow. That outfit really makes you look like a sexy warrior goddess." Clark said after Diana turned around to face him. "And that's cool how you do that."

Diana laughed, in a lot of ways she was just that. "Come on, put yours on. There's somewhere we should go."

"Oh more flying. You got it." Clark jumped at the chance to hit the skies again. He wasn't ready to go out on his own yet, but he felt fine with Diana with him.

"Not exactly flying." Diana confirmed when Superman walked out of the closet towards her. "Kal, do you trust me?"

"Sure." Clark said nonchalantly, he only know 3 other people so far. He had to trust her.

"Good." Diana touched a communicator in her ear. "Wonder Woman to watchtower, prepare two to transport."

"This is watchtower, standby please." Hawkgirl answered from the other end.

Clark didn't understand what happened next, there was a dim light that surrounded he and Diana, followed by two connecting rings that spun around. It was as if someone connected two hula hoops and spun them on top of each other on opposite sides. The whole thing was weird. Then all of a sudden he was standing in another spot.

"What the what? Did you do that?" Clark was quite taken aback by the experience.

"Well, the technology that allows us to transport like that came from you. So technically you did it."

"So instead of flying, I can just poof myself from place to place?"

"No. It's a machine that did it, a machine that you gave us. I'm sorry I should have been more specific."

"Oh ok." Clark then turned to Hawkgirl. "Hello there."

"Hi." Shayera was a little surprised at such an unfamiliar greeting.

Diana quickly leaned up and whispered into his ear. "Kal, remember none of them know we're dating. It's a secret."

"Ok."

"Kal, this is Shayera Hol, also known as Hawkgirl. She's one of the members of the Justice League."

"Is Clark ok?" Shayera asked.

"Wait a minute, you said that people weren't supposed to know my real name. How does she know it?"

Diana first addressed Shayera. "Amnesia." Then turned to Clark. "It's ok, most of the people here on the watchtower know your name, and most of them call you Clark. This is a safe environment here."

Clark hadn't taken his eyes off of Shayera. "You have wings."

"Yes." Does amnesia make someone point out the obvious?

"They're very beautiful." Clark said as respectfully as he could.

"Uh, thank you." Shayera fumbled to say, he'd never said that to her before. It was a little surprising.

Diana laughed, but silently she was glad that he didn't react to Shayera like he did to her. Otherwise she wouldn't have been happy at all.

"Is Bruce, or John Henry here?" Diana asked.

"Nope, neither." Shayera checked the list of everyone on board just to be sure, but was confident neither were.

"What about Kimiyo or Dr. Midnight?"

"Kimiyo is."

"Thank you."

"No problem."

Clark followed Diana through the halls of the watchtower. He looked in every direction, nook and cranny that they passed with an almost childlike wonder. They passed a few people who who expressed their gratitude at seeing Clark back again. Most were busy doing other things, and only had time for a wave and hello, but Wally stopped and talked to them.

"Big blue! Good to see you back up and around."

"Uh, it's good to be seen."

Diana knew that Wally had a thing for elaborate handshakes, and that he and Clark had a rather simple one, but did involve a specific set of hand movements from each person. She noted that Clark did the handshake perfectly, which meant his subconscious definitely retained some memories.

"So apparently I have amnesia, so I'm sorry to ask you this but who are you again?"

"Wally, the Flash."

"Alright, Wally, the Flash. I'll do my best to remember that."

"Wally, have you seen Kimiyo?" Diana asked.

"I haven't, but I would assume she's in the infirmary."

"If you'll excuse us Wally, Kal lets go." Diana pulled him along.

"Yeah, take it easy." As they walked away Wally took an extra long look at the two of them walking down the corridor. There was something different about them, Clark because he apparently had amnesia, but Diana was different too. Weird.

"Is it hot in here or is it just me?" Clark began to complain.

"No, it's fine. The watchtower has a controlled temperature at all times. Are you alright?" Diana became concerned.

"Well, I'm really hot." He used his forearm to wipe sweat off his brow.

"We going to see the doctor maybe she can help." Diana was hurrying now, this seemed odd that he would be so uncomfortable.

"Kimiyo! Kal needs help. He's burning up." Diana felt his forehead, he was burning up now, his temperature spiking rather suddenly, if she weren't a super powered Amazon she surely would have severely burned her hand.

Clark was sweating profusely, and breathing heavily. His first instinct was to get as far away from this room as possible, because it had gotten worse when he walked in.

Kimiyo froze for a second, then got her wits about her. "I'll get a temperature gauge and see how much we need to cool him down."

Diana watched as Kimiyo go over to a tray topped with medical instruments, she picked up a few and turned back to go to Clark. But she wasn't expecting to see what she saw, and nearly dropped the thermometer when she turned. "Oh my!"

Diana turned towards Kal to see what Kimiyo reacted to, and immediately understood. In an effort to beat the heat, Kal had removed all of his clothes. As a doctor, Kimiyo needed to regain her composure quickly which she did. She removed his uniform when she treated him after his initial injury, and wasn't exactly surprised by him she was simply caught off guard.

"Kal!" She quickly picked up his cape and tried to wrap it around his waist. "What are you doing?"

"It's hot! Get away from me." He pushed her away into one of the beds, knocking it over.

"Kal you need to calm down you're going to be fine." Diana argued.

"Kula kaya, ababa lafinsika! Karpreeno!" Clark began shouting at the top of his lungs, Diana and Kimiyo only assumed that he was screaming in Kryptonian, however neither of them knew what he was saying. It was possible that he was just spouting gibberish.

John Stewart and Hal Jordan had just returned from their assignment for Oa and were making rounds through the watchtower to let people know they were back. Hal had broken away, and John was planning on seeing Kimiyo about a twinge in his shoulder before he met with Shayera, but he changed his mind when he popped his head through the door.

Clark was delirious, completely naked and very adamant about staying that way. He was fighting off Diana who had his cape held out in front of her like she was a bullfighter challenging Clark to charge her. John thought about helping for a second, but then he heard Clark screaming unintelligible sentences and a voice that sounded distinctly like anger. Confident that Diana could handle herself he quietly slipped away.

"Diana do you think your lasso would help?" Kimiyo asked after dodging a pitcher of water that Clark had thrown after dumping the liquid over his head.

"Oh, duh." Diana's attention wasn't what it normally was. She suspected that it was Kal's state of undress that was sending her mind into a tizzy. There was something about him that kept her from thinking straight, most likely his lack of clothes.

It was beginning to get annoying that she was losing herself in fantasy with Kal. Up until now she had been reasonably successful at stifling her attraction. She felt that desires of the flesh were fleeting, and could be controlled, unfortunately right now she didn't have it together. Because the last thing she considered was her lasso.

She passed the cape to Kimiyo and roped Kal's shoulders without any hesitation of problem. "Calm down!" She demanded.

Clark immediately stopped squirming, while Kimiyo wrapped the cape around his waist, and then put the thermometer in his mouth. "Oh my goodness, this is more than triple what it usually is. We need to cool him off now!"

"How do we do that?" Diana asked.

The doctor stepped back and scratched her head. "That I'm not sure of. Pack him in ice?"

Diana thought for a few seconds. Then she pushed a com panel on the wall. "I need a site to site transport from the infirmary to the north pole immediately!"

"That could work." Kimiyo mused as Diana and Clark began to fade away.

Once they were fully gone she cleaned up the damage Clark had caused and had gone back to the piece of red Kryptonite that she had been examining before they arrived. The second she stepped into the office she noticed that the lead box the rock had been sitting in was left wide open. "Did the Kryptonite do that?" She wondered.

* * *

Clark never allowed a direct transportation into the Fortress of Solitude from the watchtower for privacy and security reasons. Only he, Diana and Bruce had been given access to get inside. While Diana was welcome at any time, Bruce was only allowed on invitation, oddly enough the Batcave had the same rule, Diana was always allowed, Clark only sometimes.

Right now however Diana's priority was to get Clark into the cold water that surrounded it. They transported about a half mile from the entrance, but she didn't even take a step towards it, she simply punched the ice beneath their feet creating a crack big enough to get through. Without further thought she pulled herself and Clark under.

After about 20 minutes Clark finally came back to the surface. Diana herself only stayed under for about 3. She quickly took the cape that she had wrapped around herself and gave it to him to wrap around his waist like a bath towel.

"What was that about?" He asked.

"I don't know. How do you feel? Do you remember anything."

"I feel fine. I don't think I remember anything though. Just waking up and seeing you." Clark smiled, a charming smile that Diana was powerless to not reciprocate.

After a few seconds of staring and naughty daydreams Diana shook her head and started moving towards the fortress entrance. "You have a home here, where we can get you some fresh dry clothes."

Clark looked around, he didn't see anything. "A home? Out here?"

"It's underneath the ice so it can't be detected from the outside."

"Oh ok." Clark followed her closely. Then started thinking out loud. "You know, I really hope you're a trustworthy person. I'm just going along with everything you're saying right now. I hope you're not leading me astray."

"I would never do that. You are my best friend and I'll always be there for you." Diana meant every word she said, but she still felt guilty as ever. However none of that stopped her from telling him the truth about their relationship.

Once inside Diana led him to some clothes, and led a tour of the fortress. She showed him the training room, weapons room, a room that she called a 'workshop' for lack of a better word and finally his bedroom. Which it just so happened she'd never seen before today.

Clark leaped from the doorway onto the bed, spanning the 12 foot distance with ease and landing on his back with his arms and legs splayed out. "Wow this is a comfortable bed."

Diana wasn't sure how to react, she didn't know what his bed was like. In fact she'd spent the last few years fighting a desire to know. Trying to play it cool she walked over and sat on the edge. "Yeah."

"You seem odd, are you ok?" Clark asked.

"Yes, why wouldn't I be?"

"You seem hesitant, I'm guessing we haven't slept together yet."

"No." Diana answered a little too quickly.

Clark decided to hedge his bets. "Do you want to?"

"Not now! You don't even know me." Diana got defensive like he knew what she had been thinking about while he was in the water.

"Alright, sorry. I just figured since we're boyfriend and girlfriend we might want to try. No disrespect."

Diana frowned, more for effect than actual anger. "Don't push it." She needed to keep him at bay on that subject. That was one place she couldn't justify going without telling him the truth. Despite the fact that he was more than willing, that was where she drew the line for herself, she absolutely would not sleep with him under false pretense. "We should go."

"Where are we going?"

"Back to Metropolis, you should stay there while I go back to the watchtower. I want to figure out what happened to you back there without a repeat performance."

"I agree. I'd rather not go through that again. So, after you?"

* * *

The two of them flew back to Clark's apartment where he lounged on the sofa with the TV on and she transported up. Where she found John Stewart and Hawkgirl in the monitor room, sitting silently. She noticed that Shayera's top had been put on inside out and that John appeared to be breathing heavily with his hands in his lap, as senior members of the League both John and Shayera knew better than to fool around while on duty but she was too preoccupied to get on their case. Actually part of her was glad to see they'd gotten back together again. But her immediate purpose was to speak with Kimiyo.

"I had the box open." Kimiyo said the second Diana walked in. "The box with the Kryptonite in it. You two just walked in and I forgot to close it, is Clark alright?"

"He's fine, he just needed to cool off. His memory didn't come back though. Do you think maybe this was the cause?" Diana walked over and opened the box, confident that Clark was far enough away.

"Of his memory loss? That I can't be sure of. However I'd be willing to bet that is why he started burning up."

"It probably affects him differently. I wonder how though. He didn't complain about being hot when he was near the asteroid."

"It's a mystery, and our complete lack of knowledge of Kryptonian physiology makes it a tough one to crack. I'm willing to defer to you on this, you know him better than anyone and are stepping up to take care of him."

"I'm just helping him regain his memories." Diana said a little too defensively.

"Hey, I'm not passing judgement. I know how you feel about him."

Diana wondered if it was really that obvious. She was going to ask something of Kimiyo but her comlink went off before she could speak again.

"Diana, I'm getting reports of Livewire causing trouble just outside of Metropolis. Normally I'd call Clark but I figure you'd know what to do." Hawkgirl said over the link.

"It's ok, I'll take care of it. Until Kal is himself again I'll pick up his responsibilities. I'm on my way right now."


	7. Chapter 7

Clark was content just sitting around in the house. He quit watching tv after not finding anything particularly interesting and went back to exploring. His first decision was to try and figure out what type of work he did. He knew he was a reporter at the Daily Planet since that was what everyone told him, but other than that he had nothing. Using his computer, he pulled up the Daily Planet website and started reading through the archives to get a feel for his own writing.

He covered a wide range of topics, local goings on to world news. By the names and titles of people he interacted with it appeared he was a respected name in the news world. He along with Lois lane were among the few people who were able to get one on ones with billionaire moguls like Bruce Wayne, Lex Luthor, Morgan Edge and Oliver Queen.

As she searched through his computer he found that he thought that both Luthor and Edge had shady business practices but was unable to find proof, and since he couldn't, his editor wouldn't let him print anything that suggested they did. There was also the fact that Luthor claimed to have a lot of respect for Clark's no punches pulled reporting style, despite the fact that he was often critical of Lex's decisions. Based on his notes, Perry White didn't want Clark to sully the Daily Planet's reputation for Luthor. Unfortunately none of this helped him remember a damn thing.

After getting bored with that, he looked around for anything else. He looked around his bookshelves, drawers and finally under his bed. He hit paydirt with a box under the bed, where he found several notebooks full of writing he'd done himself for personal reasons. High school and college term papers, short stories and a composition book full of novel ideas. He was about to sit down and read through them when the phone rang.

Lois Lane's name and picture showed on the ID. "Hello?"

"Hey Clark, it's Lois. Do you remember me?"

"Yeah, you stopped by the other day."

"Are you busy?"

"Not really."

"Alright then, I'm coming over and I'll bring something to eat, I owe you from a few days ago."

"Uh, ok." He decided to take her word for it.

* * *

Diana was having a much harder time than Clark was. Livewire wasn't the strongest or most diabolical villain there was out there, but that didn't mean she wasn't a handful. It wasn't about random acts of violence or control over the people to her. She was more like a junkie in need of a fix. Cell phone batteries and laptops could only sustain her for so long, every once in a while she needed a big score of power. Livewire's focus today was on one of the power plants just outside of the city, it was owned by Lex Luthor and while Diana would love for him to lose a boatload of money within a few minutes. A lot of people would be affected by the power outages and Luthor is the type of dirtbag to jack up the prices to make up for his losses.

While Diana's bracers could defend her from literally anything, Livewire was quite fast and Diana's body could only take so much electricity going through it before she began to have problems. Voltage that would probably have liquified a normal human had Diana on the ground trying to catch her breath. Her heart was beating wildly and her every muscle in her body was clenched. She now understood why Kal hated dealing with Livewire so much.

"I'm actually pretty surprised your Superjerk boyfriend hasn't shown up yet. In the middle of a domestic dispute or something? If I were you I'd dump his sorry ass anyway." Livewire mocked after she planted herself a few feet from where Diana was crawling on the ground gasping for air.

By now Diana was quite used to people referencing Superman as her boyfriend, and ignored the dig. Instead she reached for her lasso and flung it away only to have her opponent zap herself away just before she roped her in. All she needed to do was splash some water on Livewire, unfortunately that was much easier said than done. By the time Diana was able to locate her again, she was had caught her breath, but barely had the wherewithal to defend herself. Livewire had sent another jolt that Diana just barely was able to block.

* * *

Clark answered and opened the door for Lois and let her step inside, she had with her a brown paper bag with 'Bibbo's Bar' printed on the side. Clearly that was the food.

"Hello again."

"Hey Clark, I brought your favorite thing, from your favorite place. We can sit at the bar here, and the best part, I don't have to watch ducklips flirt with you all day." Lois explained, heading to Clark's kitchen bar area.

"Ducklips?" Clark scratched his head.

"Don't ask. Anyway, here you go, the Old school burger, with cheddar, extra bacon and crispy fries like July 30th."

"That sounds pretty awesome, but what does July 30th have to do with fries?"

"I have no idea. It's something you always say, whenever we go out to eat for lunch or something you always ask for your fries crispy like July 30th. You've never explained it but I assume it's a reference to the fact that it's usually hot in July."

"Oh, whatever."

"So, do you remember anything?" Lois dug into her own plate of roast beef, immediately noticing that this particular item doesn't appear to travel well.

"No, although I'm getting a funny feeling. A feeling that we've had this meal before." Maybe it was the smell, that particular sense is tied quite closely to memory.

Lois sighed, they most certainly had and it wasn't her best memory, but she pushed through. "Yes, you dumped me over this. So the fact that I'm bringing it to you just says how much I love you."

"I dumped you over this? I don't get it."

"A few years ago, you and I dated, for about five months. Things were going great, and then one day out of the blue we go to lunch, and you tell me, 'Lois, I care about you so much. I've never met anybody like you before. But as much as I love spending time with you, I'm not in love with you, and I can't see a time when I am. I want to be a part of your life, but I think it's best that I be that as only your friend."

"Wow, I said that?"

"Your exact words." Lois explained.

Clark stared at the wall. "I sound like a jerk."

"Well, you're not, except for that day. I thought you were going to propose."

"Hmm. Wow, and we're friends after that?"

"Yeah, we are. Weird huh? We had some great times though."

"Too bad I can't remember them."

Lois then had an idea, "Where's your laptop?"

"In the bedroom."

"Be right back." Lois jumped up, and left Clark munching on his burger which was really good. Coming back a few seconds later with his laptop.

She set it down and quickly pulled up the pictures app and scrolled to a specific block of pictures. Pictures of Clark and Lois in some sort of tropical setting. They looked happy together.

"Where is this?" He asked.

"Turks and Caicos. We took a vacation there, seems like a lifetime ago. But here's the proof that we dated." She pulled up a picture of them on the beach, Clark wearing just a pair of boardshorts and Lois in a skimpy bikini and a straw hat, and a ear to ear smile. "That was a great day."

This seemed really awkward to Clark, especially when Lois didn't elaborate on why it was such a great day. He was with Diana now, and didn't want things to get weird, he wanted to remind Lois of Diana. "Do I have any pictures like this with Diana?"

Lois was jolted out of her memory. "I don't know I'll check. I just found out she was your girlfriend the other day. I met her last year, but didn't know you had it like that. I assumed you would have told me."

"Oh."

Lois scrolled through all the pictures on the computer, "Nothing of Diana. Which is too bad for you because she would kill in a bikini."

"Yeah she would."

"I mean I look damn good, and no one can deny that. But I don't have what she does." She was willing to bet Diana had some plastic surgery in her lifetime.

Clark had to admit, those pictures showed off Lois' lovely curves, she was built like a swimsuit model. While Diana was built like an Olympic athlete.

"Speaking of Diana, where is she?" Lois took another bite of her meal.

"She's uh, doing something. I think she'll be back later."

"Uh, ok. As long as you remember I don't want you back. By bringing you food I'm simply repaying a debt."

"Fine, just one question. Would you have said yes?"

"Yes to what?"

"If I had proposed, I just want to know what kind of guy I am."

Lois stopped and leaned back deep in thought, then smiled to herself and then at Clark. "Maybe… But that was a lifetime ago. I'm with Justin now, and you're with Diana."

* * *

Diana had hoped her divine blood would give her some extra protection against electrical current, but unfortunately she had no such luck. Having that much current through the heart couldn't be healthy in the least, she tried not to think of what may have happened had she not had her bracers. She was going to have to re-think her strategy. Instead of taking Livewire to the water, she was going to have to bring the water to Livewire.

So she played possum, a risky move since she was just laying on the ground open for another attack, but she counted on the fact that her opponent has expended a lot of energy and needed to re-charge.

"Damn Wonder Skank, you're tougher than your boyfriend is. He'd have run away long ago, I guess you weren't lying when you said the only way you'd give up is if you were dead. Not the smartest move I'd say, but I'm okay with it. After I juice back up I'll give you some more shock therapy, your mind will be right soon after that. " Livewire then gave Diana a kick to the gut just for good measure before settling down by a power terminal and absorbing as much as she could, quickly knocking out electricity across the Metropolis area.

Diana took the opportunity to limp away and try again. She was actually quite angry with herself for this, Livewire wasn't that powerful, or that smart yet she'd gotten the best of this entire situation. Kal had given detailed reports on all of his dealings with her, Diana should have known how to better deal with this. It had taken all that beating for her to come up with the simplest solution in the world. Once she had the strength she flew to the nearest hardware store she could find.

* * *

After finishing their meal Lois and Clark sat down to go over some of the finer details about their work at the Daily Planet. Clark wasn't recalling anything, but Lois hoped he would at least retain the information for when he did decide to return. They were going through the website's staff list when the power went out.

Lois screamed loudly.

"What are you screaming for?" Clark shouted back, startled by her.

"I don't like thunderstorms, and it seems like everytime the power goes off a storm is coming."

"And that's an excuse to scream in my ear?"

"Sorry."

* * *

The teenage clerk at the hardware store paid for Diana's item himself, happy to help such a pretty lady just before the power shut off. Diana ignored the slight panic of the people in the store and left to find a water source. She was really angry with herself for not thinking of this earlier. It would have saved her a lot of time and effort.

Diana hovered behind Livewire just out of sight, holding a garden watering can full of water. There was no telling what effect this might have on Livewire, but it had to be done. So flying up quickly to the unsuspecting villain, Diana emptied the can on her head.

Livewire convulsed violently and eventually went down, taking out power across the eastern seaboard with her.

* * *

In the Themysciran embassy which also served as their home, both Julia and Vanessa gathered flashlights and hurried to Hippolyta's room. Not because the Queen needed help but because they were both somewhat frightened, and went to the powerful Amazon for safety. Hippolyta's belt made her nearly as strong as Diana, and her prowess with the sword or spear quite possibly was even better than her daughter.

"Could this be some kind of attack?" Vanessa asked, once they secured themselves with Hippolyta.

"I'm not sure. Hippolyta are you alright?" Julia asked.

"I'm quite fine, although your light is blinding me." Hippolyta had to cover her eyes, the 500 lumen tactical flashlight Vanessa carried lit up the room almost like it was daytime, but it was a little too much right now. So she switched it to the lower brightness.

"Help me find my communicator so I can contact the watchtower, it could simply be a power outage." Not that it was much of a big deal to her, she had lived several thousand years without electricity, she'd be just fine.

The three women searched the room for the small device, one that Hippolyta barely ever had to use so it was easily misplaced. They scoured the room to no avail for a good five minutes.

"You know I'm starting to regret our decision to let everyone go home at night. Without Diana here, this is officially creepy." Vanessa said, as she dug through the couch cushions.

"Security is on call." Julia reminded her.

"I know, it's just I'd like to know what's going on." A bump was heard from outside, followed by a yelp. "Did you hear that?"

The three women stopped moving and listened closely. There it was again, another bump followed by an opening door.

"There's someone here." Vanessa whispered in panic.

"It could simply be security. Relax." Hippolyta demanded, although she was ready for anything, she had strapped her sword and scabbard onto her waist.

Seconds later the door opened, Vanessa screamed and in a panic switched her flashlight back to full power and pointed it directly into the assailants eyes.

"Vanessa what are you doing?" Said a female voice, that the others quickly recognized as Diana.

"Oh, Diana it's you. Sorry." Vanessa switched the light back down.

"Are you alright?" The blast of light was a bit jarring to Diana, it only took milliseconds for her eyes to adjust, but she didn't get why Vanessa's light was so powerful.

"We are fine, are we under some sort of attack?" Hippolyta asked.

"No, it's just a power outage. And it might be my fault."

"Your fault? Is this one of those times that I shouldn't ask?" There were many things Julia wasn't privy to, and she tried not to overstep her bounds.

"I'd rather you didn't." Diana said, and followed with a yelp when she inadvertently touched the doorknob again.

"What was that?" Vanessa asked.

"I got shocked."

On Lois' suggestion Clark used his conveniently fully charged cell phone to place a call to Diana. Who picked up immediately.

"Hey sweetheart are you ok?"

"Yes, I'm fine." Diana answered in a very irritated voice.

"Is something wrong?"

"No, not at all. I just need to call you back."

Just when Diana thought things couldn't get any worse. They did. Her communicator apparently was damaged during her fighting with Livewire, because the volume was turned up to full. Which meant everyone in the room heard a voice that sounded distinctly like Superman refer to her as 'sweetheart'.

Hippolyta shook her head in disapproval, Julia was wide eyed, and Vanessa, she was about to come unglued any second now.

Diana sighed and put her face in her hands. "Oh gods."


	8. Chapter 8

Diana knew it would only take a few seconds for the questions to begin, she was quite glad that it was only from trusted friends like Julia and Vanessa.

"That was Superman wasn't it?" Julia was astounded.

"Diana you can't be serious. You've really been under our noses this whole time?" Vanessa was in between being disappointed because Diana didn't tell her, and wanting to jump for joy that her suspicions were true.

"That had to be Superman, who else could it be?" Julia was still in shock. "I had no idea."

Diana just sighed, she had to give them something or else they'd never stop. "It just happened."

"When?" Vanessa had completely forgotten about the blackout. "And why didn't you tell me?"

"Just recently."

"Is he a good kisser? Oh! Have you slept together yet?" Vanessa went on.

Hippolyta decided that enough was enough for now, and came to her daughter's rescue. "What of this blackout?"

"I'm not sure, there's nothing I can do about it." Diana welcomed the save, but knew that Vanessa wasn't going to be satisfied with that in the least. "It was Livewire, I had to stop her somehow. I just hope she's able to wake up."

"Livewire? What did you do to her, and how could that cause all of this?" Hippolyta asked.

"If she gets wet her power is turned against herself, that's what Superman instructed us to do. I just don't know if she was able to handle the shock she received."

"Why didn't he help you?" Julia asked, wondering why he just called as if he didn't know what was going on. She wasn't sure if she'd get an answer.

Diana figured to just put it out there, "Superman and I have recently begun seeing each other, romantically. He was busy dealing with… something, so I helped him."

After finishing her explanation she got shocked again, only this time she hadn't touched anything metal. She just had too much running through her. Luckily her mother was there to help her again.

"Here, take hold of this, the blade can absorb excess energy." What she didn't tell Diana was how she knew her sword was capable of that. Long ago Heracles had stolen one of his father's lightning bolts and used it against her.

Diana placed her hands on each side of the blade and took the sword from her mother. Immediately it began to glow, she could feel the extra energy draining out from her hands. It would surely be a relief to be normal again.

* * *

In Metropolis, Lois had been on the phone talking with Justin, who after a fantastic first date was quite excited for another. In her mind they were going places, they clicked on so many levels she wasn't planning on a few dates and off to another. Apparently that dating site matched them well. She'd only stayed this long because she thought a storm was coming, but since it hadn't she was in a good mood.

"He got caught in that meteor shower thing the other night." Lois explained about why she was with Clark. "He took a blow to the head and has what I hope is only temporary amnesia. I was trying to help him remember… Because without him at work all the pressure is on me to be the big hitter."

Clark left the room to give Lois a little privacy, except for it wasn't working. He could hear every single word she was saying in great detail, and most of what Justin was saying. He was having a difficult time not hearing her. Justin was skeptical of Lois hanging out with Clark during a blackout.

Clark could hear quite a lot actually, someone below him snoring, two kids arguing over what to do because they couldn't play their Playstation, and a couple across the road who were having a competition to see who could do the most pushups. When he thought about it, it didn't feel unusual to hear the goings on of everyone around him. Lois' conversation however was getting annoying. For some reason he was having difficulty tuning her out as he did with most everyone else. She kept telling Justin that she was leaving, but she still hadn't gone yet. He wondered why. He was also waiting for Diana to call him back. Maybe that was it, he was talking to her boyfriend, and he was stuck alone.

"Hey Clark." Lois barged into his room, he hadn't noticed her end the call. "I'm getting out of here. Will you be alright?"

"Yeah." Why wouldn't he be?

"Alright then I'm off. Hopefully I'll see you soon at work."

"Yep, stay safe out there."

* * *

After spending 10 minutes holding the sword Diana was finally herself again. She went to go back to her room and repair her communicator. As she expected, Vanessa was waiting in her room huddled next to a battery powered radio getting updates on the power outage.

"It was caused at a Lexcorp power facility, and there was damage all around the facility. They're not sure exactly what caused it yet, but I'm guessing you do?" Vanessa repeated the report the second Diana walked in.

"Livewire."

"Oh. But you already know I'm not interested in that. Spill." She wanted details about Superman.

"There's not much to say." Diana groaned.

"Then it shouldn't take long." Vanessa wasn't planning on going anywhere.

Diana took a deep breath. "What must you know?"

"First of all, when?"

"Recently."

"How recently?"

"Just recently." Diana repeated, telling Vanessa that's as much as she'd get on that.

"Ok, so obviously I knew you liked him pretty much since… always. What made you stop denying it to yourself?"

"I never denied anything." She argued.

"Yes you did!"

"What did I deny?"

"You said you weren't interested in being with him."

"I never said that, I said that I wasn't interested in sex and babies and whatever else you went on and on about. And I'm not."

"So why are you two together if you don't want that?"

"Do you want to marry every guy you date?" Diana asked pointedly.

"No, but this isn't about me. It's about you and Superman, so tell me what do you want from him?"

Diana sighed and crossed her arms, "I want to figure out what exactly it is I do want. It's a delicate situation."

"Ok, that I'll give you." Vanessa admitted. "Friends becoming lovers can be rocky. Because if it doesn't work out you could be out a good friend. A great friend in your case."

Diana looked worried by that statement, losing Kal as her friend was the last thing she wanted. Not falling in love was one thing, she could handle that if it happened, but losing his friendship and trust would be more difficult.

"But don't look so down about it. You two must have something special, for him to stick around when you were dating other guys, that means something."

"I barely dated." She'd gone on numerous dates, with athletes, actors and the like but nothing serious.

"Well what about him? I'm sure he found somebody, maybe another alien, or someone else in the League?"

Diana didn't answer. The only woman she knew about was Lois, who she'd been fully aware of. Actually she'd been Kal's confidant about the whole situation.

"Oh my gosh. Getting you to talk about Superman is like pulling teeth. You know I can keep a secret, you've got to dish me a little bit of girl talk. Tell me this, is he a good kisser?"

Diana gave in, "Yes."

"Ha! I knew it, I knew it!"

"That's all I'm telling." Diana made sure to get ahead of any further questions. "I know what you want to know, and I'll tell you now I'm not saying a word."

Vanessa pressed on anyway, much to Diana's chagrin.

* * *

Clark waited and waited, he was expecting Diana to call him back. Several times he pulled up her number on his phone and was on the verge of pressing the send button but he thought otherwise. She sounded like like she'd been preoccupied when he called earlier and trusted that she would return when she could.

Diana never did call, instead she returned to his apartment, struggling to get through the rooms in the dark. The moonlight in the window was barely enough light. She bumped into several pieces of furniture and worried she'd broken one, but couldn't see it to be sure. She wondered how Kal was able to navigate his way though. Then it occurred to her to lift herself in the air a foot or so, wondering why she didn't think of that earlier. She was beginning to wonder if she herself has suffered some sort of brain injury, because she certainly hadn't been herself lately. Kal had a way of doing that, getting her slightly off her game. It was clear, now more than ever that it had a lot to do with the way she felt about him.

She found Kal fast asleep, with his phone sitting on his chest and cradled in his hand. He must have been waiting on her to call back like she said, which had been her original intention but Vanessa's prying prevented that as long as she stayed in embassy building. Which she had for a bit longer than even she expected. Finding the chair next to his bed she kicked off her shoes and prepared to make herself comfortable, but she sat down on something. Feeling what was in the seat with her hands, she found that it was papers, mostly stuffed into folders, and also a few notebooks. Disregarding them, she quietly placed them on the floor and and sunk into the chair, figuring to wait until either she fell asleep or Kal woke up.

Clark rolled over in bed the next morning and was faced with the soles of a pair of crossed feet right in front of his nose. Quickly pulling back he saw that Diana was asleep in the chair next to his bed, she was curled up and had stretched her long legs out by laying them partially across the bed. He wondered why she didn't just climb in with him, it's not like he would have complained. Although it did give him a chance to mess with her a little bit.

Ever so gently he ran a finger on her soft skin from the heel up to the toes on the bottom her right foot, which was crossed above the left one. Reflexively she flexed her foot trying to fend off the barely noticeable touch, but she didn't wake. Clark smiled widely, and worked hard not to make a sound, and continued on. This time drawing a soft line near her baby toe, immediately she twitched her foot away.

Clark had a suspicion that Diana wouldn't like what he was doing had she been conscious of it, but he was having too much fun teasing her. He kept on with the gentle tickling. It was such an odd thing for her to react like this.

Diana was a powerhouse of a woman. In every way, she was tall, strong, and muscular. He could tell even under her skin tight blue jeans and tight short sleeve t-shirt that she had powerfully defined muscles in her arms, stomach and legs. They were almost hidden by her beautifully feminine curves and her perfectly sculpted face. Not only that, her demeanor was that of a Lioness. She was a fierce warrior when she wanted to be, so to see her undone by harmless tickling was quite ironic.

He drew a delicate circle in the arch of her left foot, and was rewarded not only with a recoiling squirm but a faint yelp from her as well. That did it for Clark, the laugh that he'd been holding in came out as an odd sounding chortle, and Diana flinched at the sound. Sensing her return to consciousness Clark moved out of reach from her before she could detect his movement.

"Good morning." Clark greeted her as her eyes began to open with the morning sun.

"Good morning to you." She replied, "Why are you smiling?"

He had a big grin plastered on his face, one that he couldn't stop. "No reason. God you are beautiful."

Diana couldn't help but smile, the sincerity of his compliment filled her with a sense of joy for a moment. Though his 'no reason' comment gave her an odd feeling. Unconsciously she rubbed the bottom of her feet on the sheets of the bed, letting the slightly rough fibers soothe her skin. Clark glanced suspiciously at her feet as she did it, for reasons she couldn't decipher.

"Breakfast?" Clark asked, jumping up from the bed and heading quickly for the door.

"Ok." She followed.

Walking back through the living room Diana looked around carefully to see what it was she bumped last night that she may have damaged. But all she saw was a side table that was pushed out of it's place.

"The power is back on." Diana noticed the clock on the oven was blinking.

"Oh look at that. What was that about anyway? I figured a storm was coming, but there was nothing but clear skies last night."

"I wish a storm would have come." Diana lamented quietly, before noticing Clark's face which indicated that he could indeed hear her. "I just mean that it would have made my life easier if it had."

"How so?"

"Well, I had someone to deal with last night. She's actually one of your enemies, since she blames you for all her problems. Her name is Leslie Willis, she was a talk radio host, but now she calls herself Livewire, and she feeds on electricity."

"Ok?" He decided not to ask how he was at fault for anything.

"She was draining electricity at a power plant, and I had to fight her. Her weakness is water, and I had to stop her before she caused an even worse blackout. I poured water on her and gave her an intense shock. When she wakes up, if she wakes up, she may or may not remember anything."

"Oh, then we'll have something in common." He spoke with a hint of disdain.

"It'll come back Kal, don't worry. You'll be yourself again soon, and I'll be here the whole time." Hopefully after too.

"So the power wasn't out for too long, I'm guessing that at least some of the stuff in the fridge is still good."

"I would assume." She followed him into the kitchen.

"Do you know how to cook anything?"

Diana's eyes widened. "Uh, not really. But I do know how to follow directions. Maybe you have a cookbook somewhere?"

Diana proved herself by making blueberry muffins from a box Clark had in his pantry. It was quite simple, and they tasted fine. It wasn't that she was incapable of preparing a meal, she just never learned her way around a kitchen. No one ever bothered to teach her. Growing up on Themyscira she had however learned to hunt, and put as much as from the animal to use as possible. Using the meat for food, and the fur for clothing and the like.

"So I'm guessing people like us don't have the most normal social life. So how exactly do we date?" Clark asked, before taking a large bite of his muffin.

Diana was caught off guard by the question. Since they'd never been on an official date she wasn't quite sure. However she had dated before so she had a little bit of knowledge.

"Well, we've only been dating for a short time. So we keep things quiet mostly, we'll have dinner together. Or we'll work out, or…. things like that." Diana answered.

"So what about going dancing, hiking, bowling, do we do that kind of stuff?" Clark asked. "Or do we take vacations to the islands?"

"We go flying from time to time." Diana pointed out, knowing he'd remember that. Obviously she didn't include that they'd never had a romantic night in the sky. However that did sound quite promising.

"So, what about regular people stuff out in public? Apparently I act like a regular person half the time. Lois told me that the two of us dated, and she sure didn't act like she knew Superman."

"Oh, she doesn't know." Diana confirmed.

He wondered how Diana would feel knowing that his ex hangs around him all the time. "Is that weird?"

"No. I knew all about it. And you're friends now, that's not weird at all. In fact, we agreed that if we ever broke up we'd find a way to still be friends."

"Because we have the fate of the world in our hands?"

"That's part of it, but also we like each other. Right? I mean first impression you like me don't you?"

Clark leaned back to get a good look at her, eyeing her up and down, laughing when his eyes swept past her feet. "Yeah, first impression I like you."

"Good. So, there it is." Diana stood up and carried her empty plate to the sink. Then stood in the kitchen, not quite sure what to do next.

"Diana."

"Yes Kal?"

"Let's go on a date tonight. A real one."

She should have seen that coming, after all they had just talked about it. But Diana found herself totally unprepared for it. She'd need time to come up with a reasonable disguise, some more normal clothes, and probably a last name. But once again, her mouth worked before she had a chance to properly weigh all of the variables.

"I'd like that." She said with a smile.


	9. Chapter 9

After finishing breakfast and doing the dishes Clark took a shower. Leaving Diana to her own devices for a while. She wasn't quite sure what to do with herself, she had agreed to go on a date tonight with Clark, for basically the first time. She wasn't clear on what they would be doing. While she'd been on dates before, this was different. There was the fact that she'd have to do it in disguise, something she'd never done before and the fact that she liked Kal more than anyone she'd ever dated before.

Her dates had been high profile events, full of fanfare and admirers. Cameras flashed every step she took and questions came from every direction. Bold, personal questions always ruled the night too. Most notable were those along the lines of 'How can you two seal the deal without you killing him?' Which were endless, even when she wasn't on a date. Then she realized that she wouldn't get that tonight, if everything went well she would just be an average woman on a date. Her concern quickly turned to excitement.

She still had questions though, so she decided to stick around until Clark got out of the shower. Placing herself on the chair she'd slept in last night she looked around the bedroom, noting that it was very cozy. She felt very comfortable being in here, she could get used to spending a lot of time here too.

"No." She whispered softly, "Don't go there."

Instead she stood to leave the room, but as she left her foot touched some of the notebooks and papers she had moved from the chair to the floor last night. Suddenly she got curious, bending to pick up a green composition book. 'Book Ideas' was written on the cover, and when she absently thumbed through the pages she saw that it was filled with ideas and short stories, she didn't read any closely for fear of being too nosey. But as she picked up and thumbed through another one seeing it had a date written on it indicating he had begun writing in it earlier this month. She picked it up and found a nice spot in the living room.

She fought herself on this one, he had told her only days ago that he wasn't going to let her read his novel whenever it was he finished it. This was a clear invasion of privacy, but she convinced herself that since this wasn't the actual novel she wasn't going against his wishes. That and she didn't believe that he would actually shut her out like that, and not to mention the fact that there was no way he would remember saying that anyway.

_Just a little peek. S_he thought to herself as she turned through the pages, skimming the handwritten notes. The first book appeared to be only ideas, but this was much more specific, there was line after line of ascending plot points. This was one story that he was actually fleshing out an outline for. As she read closer the story seemed eerily familiar to her.

An Alaska State Trooper teams with a Federal Agent to catch a criminal on the run. Some of the ideas made no sense at all to her, others were like a blinking light. Kal was adapting the time where the two of them worked together to track down Big Bard and Scott Free several years ago when they escaped Apokolips and fled to Earth.

Once she put that together the whole story made sense, from what she found it was quite a clever way to spin things. She always knew that Kal had a brilliant mind and was very good at putting a story together, but she would have never thought of it this way. After about 15 pages the outline stopped, the plot hadn't been resolved yet. Figuring she'd snooped enough she went to put the book back, but it slipped from her hand and fell onto the sofa she'd been sitting on and opened to a page that was filled with writing. Picking it up she saw that it was an excerpt from the story, one that took her quite by surprise.

In the excerpt, the characters were given names, Sgt. Calvin Ellington and Agent Deanna Perry, obvious references to Kal-El and Princess Diana, and they'd been working closely together for nearly a week in the dead of the harshest Alaskan winter in decades. Help was nowhere in sight, and to make matters worse Sgt. Ellington had been shot by the fugitive they were chasing. So he and agent Perry had to seek shelter in an old cabin that had probably been abandoned for 10 years.

This scenario wasn't totally unfamiliar to Diana. In real life she and Kal had taken shelter in an old cabin after Barda, in a desperate move to avoid capture had shot Kal with her mega rod. Which was a rather devastating weapon even to a Kryptonian, as Diana had to take care of him through the night.

And that's where things took a turn. Sgt. Ellington and Agent Perry had been fighting an intense attraction from their first meeting, and spending a night alone in front of a fire with no one around for miles gave them ample opportunity to explore it.

Kal certainly had a way with words, the way the two characters came together, losing themselves in unburdened passion. As she read the words which described every touch, every feeling, in expert detai, her mind conjured up the scenario and she imagined herself in the position of Deanna Perry, underneath Calvin giving him everything her body could handle, and she imagined her own Kal was playing the male lead. She surmised she was supposed to feel this way, after all it was what Kal most likely intended.

Diana knew it was wrong to invade Kal's privacy like this, just like it was to lie to him the way she had, but she couldn't put the book down. This was actually valuable information, this meant that Kal really liked her. Not in the way a man likes a beautiful woman who happens to be in his bedroom when he wakes up, but this meant he had real feelings for her.

The sexual prowess of Sgt. Ellington was described in great detail, but none of it made Diana uncomfortable at all. Not even a little bit did it seem dirty, not even when he described Deanna's body as exactly as he would Diana and what he wanted to do to her. She was reading about a man who was giving a woman every ounce of love he had in him, because she had a special something that no woman he'd ever met had.

And Diana knew that if her Kal was as skilled in the bedroom as his carefully worded counterpart was, she wanted to try that. Even reading a handwritten rough draft in a composition book got her heart pounding heavily and perspiration forming on her forehead. Not only that, but a quite pleasurable reaction in her womanly center.

When she finally finished the passage she was quite disappointed that it was over. It got her keyed up in a way that could get her in trouble. The fact that Kal was just in the other room totally naked didn't help either. She needed to get out of here quickly, and find a way to burn off her excess energy. So she crept back into the bedroom and placed the notebook back where she found it and exited through the roof door just as the shower was turned off.

"Diana?" Clark looked around the apartment. "Where did you go?"

* * *

Diana flew back to the embassy and went in search of her mother. Who was in her room reading.

"Are you busy?" Diana barged in.

"Not particularly, I have no more engagements for today. Most had been cancelled due to the power outage." She put her book down. "Is there something you need?"

"No reason, I just have a little bit of extra energy and wondered if you'd be in the mood for a bout."

"A sparring session?" The queen was skeptical, then decided to tease her a little. "Why me? Why not your precious boyfriend?"

Diana frowned, "He's the reason I'm frustrated. Although you aren't helping right now."

"Ah, his lack of memory or something else? Am I better off not knowing?"

"Probably."

"Very well."

"So will you help me? Or are you too old to pick up your sword anymore. Perhaps the diplomat has overtaken the warrior." Diana was trying to fire her mother up, and based on her look it was working.

"How dare you try to insult me! In all your years, how many times have you bested me with the sword?" Hippolyta stood up, accepting the challenge.

Diana knew that number was small, her mother was not one to be trifled with on the battlefield or the training yard. But that wasn't the point, she was trying to rile her mother up. Because nothing could better remove sexual energy like spending time with your mother.

Hippolyta quickly realized that her daughter wasn't trying very hard, and that her jeering was only to get her into the gymnasium located in the basement of the embassy for a workout. Diana was simply getting by with her sword technique, which suggested that she had other things on her mind.

"So tell me, have you told Kal-El the truth yet?" She knew the answer already but lead with it anyway.

"No." Diana spun around avoiding a slash from the blunt sword, and swinging towards her mothers upper body with her own.

Hippolyta blocked it easily. "Have you considered the lasso? It burns away deceit and can repair a broken mind."

"Yes I have considered it, but that defeats the purpose of everything."

"So you don't want him to recover his memories?"

"Of course I do, just…" Diana defended a flurry of jabs and slashes. "Not yet."

"What must happen first?"

"I want to see how this goes."

"So you want to see what he could mean to you as your lover, despite the fact that he has no memory of his past? I don't understand."

"Can you understand?" Diana dropped her guard and stopped, as did her mother. "Have you ever had feelings for someone? Someone close to you, that you trusted implicitly."

Hippolyta considered the question, she trusted Phillipus without any questions asked, but those feelings were sisterly. Romance was a touchy subject for the Amazon Queen, the only one she had ended in horror. "Perhaps not in the manner that you do. But why choose now? When he is not himself and has no memory of the bond you shared."

"He may have no memory, but he is himself. That much I can tell, and besides I have recently discovered proof that he's had feelings for me for quite some time."

"While I do not find that surprising in the least, I must ask how you have discovered this if he has no memory?"

"I found something he wrote, a novel or at least part of one. It spelled out rather explicitly how he feels about me."

"Explicitly eh? And I thought you and he were above all of these physical feelings?" Hippolyta mocked slightly.

"In a lot of ways so did I, but…"

"But you lied?" The Queen questioned.

"No I didn't, I changed my mind. As they say here, 'it's a woman's prerogative to do so'. And what's your problem anyway? You said you approved of Kal."

"And I do. Kal-El has always been a perfect gentlemen, never selfishly taking advantage of others. I recall a tale you once told me, after a mission off world, the two of you were locked together…."

"Enough! We don't need to go through that again!" Diana had confessed the night she and Kal were forced to spend the night together naked. She had been trying to get that night out of her mind, Kal's story captured that memory very well, although he wrote a very different ending.

She forcibly shook her head, to get her mind out of the gutter. She had to see him again tonight, in a romantic setting no less. Her workout with her mother had done it's job to a point, she burned off some extra energy, hopefully she'd be tired out by the end of the night.

"Daughter, I do not wish to make you uncomfortable believe me. I am just trying to understand, not only you but him. If you love someone, why not tell them?"

The thought was easy, she and Kal admitting they loved each other, but the practical application of that thought was much more complicated. It was complicated for reasons that Diana preferred not to consider right now. So she put her sword away and headed off for a shower.

* * *

Clark suggested that he and Diana go out on a date, but didn't have the slightest idea what to actually do while they were out. He'd suggested dancing, hiking and bowling earlier, but none of those seemed like good options. He couldn't remember if he knew how to dance, nor was he sure if he could bowl without giving away the fact that he could lift up the entire bowling alley with one finger, and hiking just sounded plain boring. So he got on his computer, bypassing the lock screen without even considering what his password actually was, looking for things to do in the Metropolis nightlife, in the middle of the week, until he came upon something promising.

* * *

Diana was standing at the foot of her bed looking over two different outfits for tonight. One, just jeans a blouse and a jacket, and the other a not too formal dress. She was debating which one to wear, she had no idea what type of date Clark wanted to go on, so she needed to leave her options open. But time was of the essence, Vanessa would return probably any moment now and she needed to be gone by then. Not that she didn't want to confide in her friend, who was ecstatic that she and Kal had gotten together, she just didn't want to let it slip how they got together. Dealing with her mother was more than enough. So figuring it didn't make any difference anyway she picked up both and took off out the window.

* * *

Clark was on his 10th different outfit combination when Diana arrived. They were going to a casual place, but he didn't want to look like a total slob. Diana had an aura of classiness to her, that he didn't want to disappoint, he must have been a smooth guy to get her. So what he didn't get was the glasses. In every single picture he saw of himself, he wore them. Even on the beach with Lois the thick rimmed glasses were right on his face. It's not like he needed them to see, or to differentiate himself from Superman. Lois had seen him without glasses the other day, and probably quite often when they dated, but also Lois appeared to be Superman's exclusive press agent.

"Hey, why do I wear glasses all the time?" Clark asked, quickly noticing that Diana had hers on too.

"It's your disguise, sort of."

"Only sort of?"

"Well, being Clark Kent isn't a mask, you're living the life of the man you were raised to be. As Superman you do the same, while you keep those parts of yourself a secret, they are both equally important to who you are at your core." She tapped his chest for effect. "The mask you wear is that of a human, someone who isn't remarkable. The glasses serve as a reminder that Clark Kent can't be seen as perfect."

"Oh, that makes sense. Is that why you wear them?"

"Not exactly. I have no normal life to live, I am Princess Diana always. But Clark Kent can't date me without causing too much hassle, so these will be my disguise too." She stepped close to him so they leaned close and looked in the mirror on the back of the closet door. "Plus we look cute together."

Clark smiled, he had to agree there. Diana was more than cute, she was 12 levels of beautiful, and while Lois was no Diana, she was pretty damn gorgeous too. He had a pretty good track record, he wondered who else he dated.

"So where are we going? Which outfit should I wear?"

"Wear the pants." He suggested, indicating the tight blue jeans, black sleeveless blouse and the green jacket to wear overtop it.

"Ok, but where are we going?"

"You'll see."

After dressing the two of them exited the apartment, Clark out of fear of offending Diana, chose to fly instead of take a cab or the subway. He didn't know if she was the type who would be put off by using such primitive means of transportation.

They flew about 8 miles before Clark slowed, and began a slow descend to an unpopulated area. Diana looked around at the unfamiliar place. There were buildings settled close together, some of which were connected by walkways, some of which were not. There was a parking structure, and several large lots which were mostly empty. She looked and looked until she found a sign, Metropolis Community College.

"Kal, what could we possibly be doing at a community college?" She asked as they touched the ground in a secluded area and walked towards the Soule-Daniel Language & Arts building.

"Taking a class of course."

"Really?" Diana didn't get it, while she'd never taken a college class before and thought it might be a fun experience she didn't think this was the greatest idea for a date.

"Yeah come on."

Clark found the room using a map just inside the building, along with a handful of others who appeared to be going to the same place. Men and women, many holding hands filed into the room, and looking at the whiteboard at the front of the room Diana figured out what they were doing.

"Welcome to couples painting." The female instructor announced when it seemed all the spaces were filled.

Clark and Diana were set up in front of easels so that they couldn't see what the other was painting, but could see each other simply by leaning to one side. While Diana had an appreciation and an affinity for arts she preferred sculpting to painting, although this wasn't bad at all.

"I've got to give it to you Kal, this is kind of cool." Diana said as she began the initial lines to create his shoulders. "I was certainly not expecting this."

"Well, I figured to think outside the box. Since I can't remember how our dates went before, although it makes this assignment a little bit of a struggle."

The assignment was for each person to draw their partner at the time of their most fond memory of them. Clark, only remembering three days worth of Diana didn't have much to go on, and he couldn't draw her in her armor. So he opted to use his imagination a little bit.

The assignment was actually quite easy for Diana, her favorite memory of Kal was clear in her mind. It was the first time he'd invited her to Smallville, when she first met his parents. He'd simply given her an address to get to and hadn't said anything else. When she was let into the house she saw him lounging on the sofa wearing jeans and a t-shirt like he belonged there. It had been the first time she'd gotten a true glimpse of Kal as he naturally was, he wasn't Superman nor a mild mannered reporter. He was himself. Diana could picture that moment without any difficulty whatsoever.

"Having trouble Kal?" Diana asked, noticing that she couldn't hear the sound of a brush on his canvas.

"I got something, don't you worry your pretty little face."

Diana scoffed and continued with her outline.

Clark on the other hand, was was gathering information in his mind. He had memorized every line, every curve of Diana over the few days they've been together. Her nearly intoxicating scent, and her graceful movements, they were easy to bring to the forefront of his mind, and it gave him the ability to use his imagination a bit.

* * *

Sometime later, the instructor came around and looked at Diana's progress, looking back and forth at Clark and the painting before saying anything. "That captures him. Very nice." She said low, thinking Clark couldn't hear.

Then she stepped behind Clark, careful not to reveal anything from the others painting and her mouth curled into a smile. "That's not surprising at all."

"What are you doing to me Clark?" Diana asked poking her head from the side of the easel so she could see him.

"Nothing at all sweetheart, I'm simply trying to capture your unrivaled beauty." He said in a controlled and almost sarcastic voice which sent alarms ringing in Diana's mind. Usually, when Kal got like this he was preparing for some sort of joke.

_I better have clothes on._ She thought, wishing she had x-ray vision herself. _He probably has been checking me out for the last few days every chance he gets. Oh he's going to pay dearly. _

The class was given plenty of time to continue their work, but near the end the instructor had them take a break to allow the paintings to dry. So each couple was led out of the room careful to not be able to see their partner's painting of them. Diana looked around, at some of the others, there were several portraits, some abstracts and from what she could see, and one nude, which was of a man. She desperately hoped that Kal hadn't been so bold to paint her in such a way. After spending about 10 minutes getting the paint of their hands everyone gathered in another classroom where there were refreshments set up.

"You didn't draw me nude did you?" Diana asked quietly, knowing she was breaking the rules.

"What?" Clark gave her a look as if he had no clue what she was talking about.

"Did you?" She gave him a warning look.

He didn't say a word, he simply gave her a devilish grin, which set her on edge.

"You know I can hurt you right?" Diana whispered threateningly in his ear with a deadly calm.

"I think I might enjoy that." He flashed a smile that caught Diana off guard.

Clark then became deadly serious and stared deep into Diana's eyes. She lost herself for a moment, forgetting that they were surrounded by other people. She felt her heartbeat jump and her nerves tingle. She was having the same reaction she had to the hot and heavy words he'd written in the story she read earlier. She was drawn to him like a magnet, the only thing that stopped her from kissing him was the call to return to the classroom and reveal the paintings.

"So Diana." The instructor read the name tag. "What is the name of your piece?"

Diana spoke to the entire class. "I call it 'In his Natural Habitat' this is him the day I first met his parents, and saw who he truly was in a lot of ways." She showed the canvas to Clark.

"Wow, that's pretty good." The painting was slightly abstract, the angles of the room were off by quite a bit, but he suspected that was an intentional move by Diana.

"And you Clark, what is yours called?" The instructor asked.

"I call it 'A Perfect Night' and I think it's pretty self explanatory."

Diana was nervous as ever while Kal flipped the painting around. There were a few gasps and snickers from a few of the others who saw the final product before she had and her hands began to shake.

"Oh my…" She could only say, with wide eyes.

It was a closeup, with only her head and shoulders visible laying on a bed, with rose petals all around her with her eyes closed and her mouth open in a scream. The painting was indeed self explanatory, as the looks of recognition went across every face in the room. It was a portrait of Diana appearing to be in mid orgasm.

She wasn't exactly angry at Kal, actually she didn't know how to respond, because all things considered the painting was quite beautiful. Capturing every line in her face exquisitely, it was just so damn embarrassing. She just wanted to get out of here quickly. No one had seemed to notice, but Clark had drawn her without the glasses, and in her eyes everyone in the room now had a clear look at Wonder Woman's 'O face'.

"That would be a good memory." One man in the back said, before stepping close to his woman and putting his arm around her.

"Thank you Kal, I can't wait to hang it." Diana said sarcastically.

Clark only laughed.

* * *

The two of the flew carefully back to his apartment and set the paintings safely in the closet. Now that they were alone, and not worried about ruining the delicate wood and canvas Diana was all ready to light into Kal, but once again he did something to catch her off guard.

He grabbed her hips and pulled her in for a deep kiss. One that Diana initially tried to fight, but immediately found herself powerless under his touch. She didn't protest when he pushed the jacket off her shoulders onto the floor and angled her towards the bed.

In fact she welcomed him, imagining herself as Agent Deanna Perry and he Sgt. Calvin Ellington, in a cabin surrounded by nothing but wilderness. It was the first time they'd made love to each other after fighting the urge since the moment they met. Part of Diana was ready right now, damn the consequences. Kal was real, he was here, and he was willing. Her body screamed yes, but that little part of her mind told her not to cross this line.

By now Clark had her on the bed, laying underneath him. He found earlier that he wasn't able to paint her from memory, but his fantasy was more than strong enough, and right now he wanted nothing more than to turn fantasy into reality. He kept pushing further, now lifting her shirt and rubbing his hands on the skin revealed underneath.

Diana was struggling to keep herself afloat, she didn't want to stop, but knew she had to. Kal was seconds away from unhooking her bra when she did the only thing she could to stop him.

A right hook to the jaw sent Clark tumbling off of Diana and into the bathroom door. "What the hell was that for?"

"I'm so sorry Kal!" Diana felt awful, she didn't mean to hit him that hard. She just wanted him to get up.

"A simple no would have done the job." He said incredulously as he picked himself off the floor.

"You were kiss… I couldn't… I'm sorry sweetheart." She went to him and rubbed his jaw.

"I guess you can hurt me, and I don't really like it that much."

Diana groaned, she was even more embarrassed now than she was in the class room. She just cold cocked her boyfriend simply for showing affection to her. He actually looked angry about it. She'd never been in this position before, and was completely clueless on what to do. So in a move that was probably as un-Amazon a move she'd made in quite some time. She ran.

She took off at top speed, all the way back to the embassy in Washington DC.

"Great." Clark said to himself. "Now I'm horny _and_ confused."


	10. Chapter 10

Diana paced back and forth alone in her bedroom, going over the events of the day. The date went rather well, couples painting was more fun than she'd expected. The fact that they were surrounded by total strangers made the embarrassment a little easier to take as well. Her problem was with how her time with Clark ended.

_Well Diana, you really stepped in it this time. What is wrong with me?_ _I should not have gone into his room like that, next time I'll just step inside, hug him, kiss him for less than 3 seconds and leave. _

There was also the issue of the punch, she really didn't mean to hit him that hard. On top of it he seemed angry at her for doing it. Of all the underhanded things she's done involving Kal in the last few days, she couldn't leave him like that. He deserved some sort of explanation, but she worried that she would lose herself with him again and decided another approach was needed.

* * *

Clark was pacing through his living room, without the slightest idea what to do. Diana seemed like such a sweet loving woman, while he could see the fire in her that could battle an enemy he didn't expect to get knocked out for showing her love. His saying he'd like it if she hurt him was just witty banter, an attempt to stir her imagination a bit. He had been trying to get Diana to re-create the painting he'd done of her, and wanted to stimulate her mind before her body. Perhaps she'd been more offended by it than she let on. Clearly she wasn't up for that, something he had probably known before, and certainly wouldn't forget now.

He was in his kitchen still pacing, when he heard the buzz of the phone from the other room, which he hurried to get. It was Diana on the line, so he answered carefully, for all he knew she could punch through the phone.

"I'm sorry for the painting. I didn't mean to embarrass you." Clark decided to lead with that.

"What? No it's fine, I was caught off guard by it, but it was very well done in fact I had no idea you could paint like that. That's not why I'm calling. I want to apologize. I shouldn't have hit you like that…"

"Can we talk face to face? This phone thing seems miserable."

"I… I'd rather do this over the phone." She didn't want to end up in his bed again, distance was necessary. "Besides, I believe that most people our age just text each other."

"That sounds even worse."

"Besides I'm four states away." Even she didn't buy that lame excuse.

"We can fly. I just want to be able to see your face as we talk this out. I feel like getting punched in the face isn't the best way to end a night."

Diana had to concede his point, she didn't want him angry with her over something like this. "Fine, give me a few minutes and I'll let you know where to meet me."

"Thank you."

Diana decided to meet in a place where she could more easily control herself. So after making sure all the red kryptonite was locked down, she secured a room on the watchtower for them, then texted Kal the details.

* * *

She was now sitting in one of the hard backed, conference chairs waiting for him to arrive. She'd gotten confirmation from Wally, who was on duty tonight that he was on the station and was on his way. As seconds ticked into minutes she began to worry if he'd gotten lost. Or even worse stumbled across more kryptonite. She opened the door to search for him and saw him several steps away from the door.

"Hey." He greeted happily.

"Please come in." Diana led him inside and motioned for him to sit, before finding her own chair on the opposite side of the table. She tried not to laugh as he struggled to deal with sitting down while wearing his long sweeping cape. "Ok, as I was saying before, I'm sorry about punching you."

Clark believed her. "You're forgiven."

"Good, thank you." She took a deep breath, "I have a few things to confess. I'm not really good at this whole dating thing. I've only gone on a handful in my entire life, and most of them were nothing to be excited about. Tonight on the other hand was fun, maybe a little embarrassing but not the worst thing in the world. I really like you, more than anyone I've ever dated before. But us being together is complicated, not so much that I don't want to do it, but it takes a lot of work. More than most others have to deal with."

"The secrets?"

"That's part of it."

"Ok, I suppose I understand that. Hell, right now I've got secrets that are secret from me. But the more I think about it what you explained to me about keeping Clark and Superman separate makes sense. I wear a 'mask' so to speak to protect the people close to me."

"Right."

"But the thing I don't get, is why we're not telling our friends about us. Lois knows, a class full of strangers know but not them?"

Diana hoped he wouldn't bring that up, she'd been burying herself in lies and was quite annoyed with herself about it. So she decided to tell at least part of the truth. "We've been dancing around each other for so long, they speculated, they made bets, we should have this to ourselves for a while. Get to know each other on a more intimate level."

"Ok, I can see your point on that." He gave her a slick smile.

Diana had seen that smile earlier tonight, just before he tried to undress her. "But not _that _intimate."

"Well why not?"

"Your memory is gone, for all I know you may wake up one day and decide you hate me."

"Why would I do that? Is there something you're not telling me?"

_Yes. _"No. It's just I want us both to have a clear mind when we sleep together that's all. That and because I'm…" She trailed off.

"Because you're what?"

"I've… never been with a man before." She said quietly and sheepishly.

"Really?" Clark was bewildered.

"Why do you say it like that?" Diana was a little offended now.

"I just wasn't expecting you to say that. I mean you wear that outfit and..."

"What do you think that I live the life of some slut! I don't need to give any part of my body to anyone if I don't want to. I made a choice, a personal choice and I don't need to prove anything to anyone. Even you! And don't bring up my armor, says the guy who wears his underwear on the outside!"

"Hey, sorry." Clark put his hands up in retreat. "I wasn't trying to offend you, I just… assumed that we already did it. Before you decked me that is."

"No, we haven't. Why would you assume that?"

"Funny story actually. I read online that your sense of smell has strong ties to memory, so I walked around my place smelling everything."

"And you remember something?" She asked cautiously.

"Yeah, when I came across the maple syrup I got a rush of you and me, and naked naked oily bodies, and all kinds of good stuff. Actually that was key in helping me with my painting tonight."

"Oh, you're remembering _that_."

"So that wasn't a dream! Oh please tell, because I want that memory in full." Clark folded his arms on the table and gave her his full attention.

Diana slumped in her chair, she had a feeling this was going to come up eventually. She just hoped it would be much later.

"About 6 months ago, you and I left the planet to negotiate a treaty on a distant world. The government had collapsed and broken into two factions, who were on the verge of civil war. We went there, prevented the war and helped them start a dialogue to reform their leadership. Any of this sound familiar to you yet?"

"No."

Diana continued. "Well, apparently the air on that planet has caustic elements, while having no effect on us, could be harmful to humans without our immune systems. When we returned to the watchtower we were forced to go into the decontamination chamber, while our clothes went under a different process to be cleaned. Whoever was running the chamber from the outside however, decided it was funny to not give us anything else to put on, so we spent the entire night naked. That's what you're remembering."

"Ok, so we didn't have sex that night?"

"No, that's all your imagination. Aside from rubbing ourselves in a special oil that smells like maple syrup we didn't even touch each other. Even then all we did was help each other with the hard to reach places. So any touching that we did other than the upper back is all your own invention."

"What about your staring? I'm just getting an image of your eyes on me, unmoving."

"That part was real." Diana answered honestly. "I'm a woman, you're a man who happens to be very handsome. I'm not a robot… Shut up!"

"Shut up about what?" Clark laughed at Diana's discomfort.

"Never mind. Anyway, we haven't been dating long enough to get serious enough about sleeping together. When I told you before that I was a virgin you said you understood. Can I expect that to continue?" Diana asked.

"Yeah, I understand, there's nothing wrong with that. It's a personal thing, you shouldn't be pressured into it. So I'm sorry for how I acted before. I didn't realize I was being a jerk."

Somehow Diana knew that was how Kal would react to that bit of information. He'd been sincere and understanding before, when she told him her reasoning and was again just now. She always liked those qualities in him.

"You weren't being a jerk. You didn't remember, plus we're together now. We wouldn't have much of a relationship if sex wasn't in the cards at some point."

"Just not now?" Clark asked just to get one last bit of confirmation.

"Not now."

"Ok, this is good! I'm remembering something, we've got a few boundaries established to prevent me from getting socked again. I can't complain too much."

"Um, I should go. But I'll see you tomorrow?" Diana spoke after a short pause.

"Alright."

Diana got up and headed towards the door, but stopped short. "Oh Kal one more thing, can you not show that painting to too many people?"

Clark grinned. "No problem."

"Thanks."

* * *

Clark waited around a little while after Diana left, then went exploring about the watchtower. His security clearance gave him access to every room on the station, so he just wandered for a little while. Not everyone knew the severity of Clark's injury or memory loss so most people paid him no mind.

Stargirl was one of the freshmen members of the league, having been a part of the team for only a few months. She wasn't privy to most of the goings on of the founding members, so she was surprised to see Superman walking around as if he was going nowhere. She had never interacted with him much, but did know that he had recently been injured.

"Do you need anything sir?" She questioned, trying to be as helpful as possible.

Clark wasn't sure if this girl knew about his memory loss or not, and wasn't in the mood to explain anything to her right now. She seemed young, and with the deferential treatment she appeared to be giving him he figured it was a chain of command sort of thing.

"Where's the decontamination chamber?" Superman asked as if he was testing the girl instead of genuinely wanting to know where it was.

"It's… four decks down. Sir?"

"Ok. What's the quickest way to get there from here?"

"Uh… this way." Stargirl motioned for him to follow her. "It's a bit unusual to go there from here, it's only used when returning from off world assignments, and very rarely at that."

Stargirl continued to ramble, sharing an elevator with the Man of Steel was a bit nerve wracking. He was bigger than life, as was Wonder Woman, who she interacted with fairly often but still knocked her knees whenever they were in the same room.

"Here we are sir, the decontamination chamber." Stargirl led him to the door, which was clearly labeled.

"Thank you. That will be all." Clark said.

"Not a problem sir." She pressed the elevator and went back up.

_I wonder who that was._ Clark thought to himself as he opened up the bulkhead doors to the chamber and stepped inside. He gave every inch of the room a once over, hoping to remember more of that night with Diana.

* * *

Diana on the other hand, left the watchtower to find some peace and quiet. She wanted to relax, and didn't think she could do that with Kal right now without getting herself in trouble. It wasn't very late, just after 10 PM in Washington DC, but she wanted something more to do, to occupy her mind. So she took off for the West Coast for a while, the time difference would give her some time to unwind without feeling like a night owl.

She settled in not too busy city in Arizona and just walked around downtown for a while. There wasn't the hustle and bustle of Metropolis or Gotham, nor the crime so she allowed herself to get lost in the evening. She'd never done this before, just gone out by herself in disguise. Ordinarily she would be hounded by photographers well wishers and creepy guys who wanted to get close to her. The creepy guys came out of the woodwork to try to hit on her still, but she shut them down as usual. But it was quite nice for the fanfare to be on someone else for a change. No wonder why Kal insisted upon living his own life.

* * *

Clark gave up trying to gather memories of Diana in the decon chamber, besides after while he felt a little weird about it. So he decided to just hover in the sky for a while and listen. There was quite a lot of sounds to sort through. Snoring, arguing, crying, singing, laughing. Along with the sounds of vehicles and machinery, but the jumbled mess seemed familiar in a way, it was a different sound than when he was in his apartment and hearing the neighbors, listening in on that seemed like an invasion of privacy somehow. But this was different, he found himself listening for specific sounds, but couldn't figure out what exactly they were.

That is until he heard one, a woman screaming for help, begging someone for something. Clark focused his hearing and his vision and found he could pinpoint the exact location of the voice within seconds. A woman was being carjacked at gunpoint and was trying desperately to get her young child out of the car.

Clark shot off like a rocket.

"You can have the car, just let me get my son!" The woman screamed, fear had overtaken her and her fine motor skills were suffering. She couldn't for the life of her get the carseat unbuckled. Not with the muzzle of a gun jammed into the back of her neck.

"Hurry up!" The man shouted again, he needed to get moving she was taking too long.

"Please!"

The woman heard a whoosh and a thud followed by a pained groan. It took several seconds for her to realize that the gun was no longer on her neck, and the man was no longer standing behind her. Finally unbuckling her son she clutched him close and turned around.

She couldn't believe her eyes, she saw a long red cape embroidered with a golden 'S' billowing in the breeze. He was standing over the carjacker who was holding his ribcage and writhing in pain. Superman had driven his shoulder into the man's stomach with alarming force. He'd begun to cough up blood from internal injuries.

Clark was furious, how could this man have the audacity to threaten someone like this? In the middle of the street, to walk up to a woman and demand anything from her at gunpoint. He had his arm cocked to bring down a devastating punch onto the man's head, and was about to unload.

"Superman thank god." The woman behind him said.

Clark turned around just as the woman held her son in one arm and hugged him with the other. "You're welcome."

"I've never been so scared in my life. I can't thank you enough." The woman said as other people began to exit the buildings onto the street, and sirens could be heard not far away.

"It was no problem." Clark answered awkwardly, before checking back on the carjacker who was still rolling in pain.

Clark stayed on the scene and spoke with the woman and some of the neighbors who had witnessed the crime. He was going through a bit of emotional turmoil however, he didn't show it but this situation made him incredibly angry. The thought of someone using a gun against defenseless human being made him angry. Not only that but the fact that this woman's life was on the line and no one came outside to try to help her. One person had called the police, but that was all.

But what had Clark most concerned was the reaction he had himself. The anger had nearly taken over, and if the woman hadn't hugged him, he feared he was going to kill the carjacker.


	11. Chapter 11

After the paramedics loaded the carjacker into the ambulance, and the police took statements and such Clark finally left the scene. Probably the entire neighborhood came outside to see him, everyone including the police officers and EMT's were a bit starstruck by his presence. Clark didn't really know what to do with himself, his anger had dissipated but that didn't stop him from being confused about it.

During the meeting with his parents they explained about his rule not to kill, and Diana confirmed it. They claimed that he was adamant about sticking to that rule. So why had he been on the brink just now? He needed help, and right now Diana was the only one he knew well enough to help him figure things out.

* * *

Diana was leisurely flying back to DC when she received an urgent call from Kal. He seemed to be confused about something and needed to speak with her immediately. So she changed direction and made a beeline for Metropolis.

She didn't think anything of it until she opened the roof door and walked down the short flight of steps, but it occurred to her that he may have just gotten his memory back and knew that he'd been hoodwinked by her. She began walking slow and cautious.

"Kal?"

"In here." He answered from the living room. "How do I do this?"

"Do what?"

"How am I supposed to be this great protector with incredible morals when I barely can follow them?" He was pacing back and forth in uniform with a distressed look on his face.

"What happened? Tell me about it." She was still in civilian clothes, and sat down on the couch patting the seat next to her.

Kal sat down and explained the scenario to her, it didn't seem too out of the ordinary to her, even the part about him plowing through the carjacker with the force of a truck. Kal and Bruce in particular were tough on those who preyed on the weak. But the level of his anger surprised even her.

"I swear I was two seconds away from killing him, and she just walked up and hugged me. I don't understand." He confessed.

"Maybe she saw the look you had and wanted you to stop." Diana guessed.

"No, I had my back turned she couldn't see me. She just wasn't afraid. I'm the most powerful person…" He gave Diana a once over. "man, on the planet and was angry enough to obliterate a guy with a flick to the forehead, and she just walks up to me like it's nothing."

"You're Superman. They see you as the ultimate protector, maybe even more so than even me. You don't show anger, you never really have."

Clark sighed loudly and leaned his head back and stared at the ceiling.

Diana hadn't given much thought to Kal's moods. He lived the ups and downs of everyday life that she didn't. He was probably more prone to mood swings than she would be as a result. She couldn't recall a time when he wasn't acting like he was in a good mood, cracking jokes or something like that. But there was no way he was like that all the time, it just wasn't possible.

"I never considered it before, but you must have some sort of mindset as to how you deal with some of the things you see. Some kind of rationalization for going in and helping people when they're in the worst of situations. You're not like me, I was born to be the way I am. It was my destiny to bring peace to the world, and I was raised to be able to do just that. You chose this life, I realize I never even wondered why."

"Why would anybody choose to feel this way? I don't want to kill anybody, but back there on the street, it was like something took over me for a second."

Diana briefly wondered if there were any remnants of Red Kryptonite left, and made a mental note to ask about it on the watchtower later, but somehow she didn't think so. It had probably taken him years to learn how to handle being Superman, but now he was forced to relearn everything in a matter of days. This could take some time.

"We should talk to Bruce." Diana suggested.

"Who?"

"Batman." Diana corrected, knowing Bruce he probably would have preferred Kal didn't know his identity yet.

"Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman. I guess that's not a big surprise." He knew there were more heroes, but didn't know their names. "Hey who's the teenage blonde girl who wears blue shorts and a star on her chest?"

"Stargirl."

"Obviously."

"Why are you asking about her?" Diana wondered.

"She helped me out earlier. I acted like I was testing her, but really I had no clue where I was going."

"Oh. Where did she take you?"

"The decontamination chamber." He answered with a fiendish smile.

"Oh gods, that figures." Diana groaned, while Clark began to laugh a little harder.

"Can you blame me?"

Now it was Diana's turn to laugh.

"Thank you." Clark said after regaining his composure.

"You're welcome Kal."

Feeling a little better, having been reminded that it would take time he stood and went to change back into some street clothes. Giving Diana a few minutes to herself.

She called up to the watchtower to ask if they had found anymore Kryptonite, but couldn't get a definitive answer. Bruce was headlining that endeavor, but as with everything it came second to Gotham. She would ask him about it now, but she'd give him the courtesy of doing it during the day. Right now he was probably knee deep in cowering thugs anyway.

There was also another approach she could take to help his memory too, delving into his past. So far he'd seen his parents and Lois, but no one else. She knew he had other friends who could help him out too. Obviously the Justice League members, and one of the Daily Planet's sportswriters who also co-hosted a sports talk radio show who was a pretty good friend of Clark's. Of course there were probably others too, that she didn't know about.

There was a selfish part of her that wanted his memories to never come back. So they could build their relationship without the worry of him rejecting her over the untruths, but she knew that wasn't feasible, he was already slowly regaining it. She had made that bed, and was going to have to sleep in it. She'd be able to deal either way.

"I'm going to go to the watchtower, and find out about Bruce and a few others. You want to come with me?" Diana stood and asked.

"No I'd rather stay here." He would have preferred she stay but he decided not to pry this time. "Will I see you tomorrow?"

"Of course." Diana was about to leave, but stopped and took Kal's hand in hers. "There are good days and bad days. Maybe sometimes you want to lose hope, but always remember there is someone who might be forever changed simply by meeting you. It may be someone who's life you save, or it may be the person you slam to the ground. Remember that."

Clark didn't say anything in response to Diana's words he simply nodded and smiled. It was sound advice, and he decided to take it to heart. He was grateful to have someone like her with him during this time. Someone who understood a part of his life that most wouldn't. Someone who didn't hesitate to stand by him when he was struggling. Diana was awesome.

* * *

This time of night, the tower was mostly empty. There was the monitor, and not many others. Most everyone who lived on the surface was in their home city of operations, others were on call, ready to be sent anywhere in the world that was needed.

Booster Gold was in the monitor's chair, keeping track of things. He was leaning back with his feet propped on another chair that was next to him when he accepted Diana's transport request.

"Everything good?" Booster asked.

"Just fine. Anything going on?" Diana asked.

"Just the protests in Egypt. Vixen and Steel are in the area, making sure things don't get too out of hand. But so far it's nothing out of the ordinary. Just a run of the mill government protest."

"What about Batman? Can you ping his locator?"

Booster sat up in the chair and keyed in the necessary codes to get Batman's specific location. "He is going north on… the turnpike? Huh, that's odd but he's going towards Arkham, so maybe that's it. Why did you need him for something?"

"It can wait." Diana started to leave.

"Hey is Clark cool? John told me he had an episode the other day."

"He's not quite himself, but he's getting there." Diana glossed over the facts, preferring not to tell everyone what exactly was happening with him.

"Alright, cool. Take it easy." Booster said, letting Diana leave finally.

Since she knew Bruce was busy Diana didn't really know what to do with herself here on the watchtower. She found Hawkgirl and Starfire in a lounge watching a movie. The two of them both lived on the tower most of the time and had become good friends. In fact, Koriand'r was probably the only one who had the full details of Shayera's sometimes on sometimes off relationship with John Stewart.

"Hey Diana." Koriand'r said.

"I should have known I'd find you two here."

"Where else would we be?" Koriand'r asked. "Booster hasn't called us for anything, and there's not much to do right now. Plus the lead actor in this movie is simply delectable."

"Oh." Diana muttered. It wasn't a big surprise Koriand'r would say that. She was rather open with her affections in that way. Her outfit was even more revealing than Diana's, but unlike the Amazon, she welcomed the compliments she got from the men and sometimes participated in the flirting.

"How is Clark?" Shayera asked. "Last I heard he was going crazy."

"He's fine now. I think he just was having a reaction to the Kryptonite."

"So the red kind affects him differently?" Koriand'r asked.

"I guess so." Diana sat down. "I'm curious, why did you join the league? Why did you choose to be a protector?"

"Why do you ask?" Koriand'r asked, while she pondered the question.

"I don't know, just something Kal said to me earlier. It had me wondering."

Shayera answered first. "On Thangar, joining the military is mandatory, everyone has to serve at least 5 years. The life fit me, and I climbed the ladder quickly, even after my time was over I stayed, but my next promotion opened my eyes to the corruption in the government, and the role I played in oppressing innocents. I couldn't stay there anymore, so I fled. It was because of John that I ended up here. I can't stand a bully, so I stand up to them."

Diana knew that there was a lot that Shayera wasn't telling, simply by the somber look on her face it was clear that she was directly involved with things that she wasn't proud of and was probably upset at the fact that she didn't see what was really happening sooner.

Koriand'r had a more difficult time coming up with an answer. Nothing about being a Princess or the betrayal by her sister really showed a direct transition into being on a team of protectors.

"I think I do it because I can. I like Earth, there's no other place like it. For so many people who are so different to share one world is unique. Even though I'm different, and one of a kind, I feel comfortable here. With you, and Shayera, and Superman there are so many of us that are unique, and are accepted here. I guess I want that to continue." She shrugged.

Diana wondered if if Kal's answer was similar to that one, perhaps he did it because he could. He wasn't dedicated to fighting injustice the way that she was, or even the way Bruce was, now that there were other powerful members of the league he could count on he didn't even leave work to deal with a crisis half of the time. Maybe the man who wrote those short stories was who he really was. After all, it's who he would be if he weren't Superman.

Or would he be? Superman was such a big part of who he was, in fact the most thought out story, the one she read so closely was derived from his own mission to protect the earth. Him figuring out why he does what he does would be key in regaining his memory, and Diana knew that was a place she needed to focus. Not only that, she wanted to know too.

After sitting around with Koriand'r and Shayera for a little while longer. Diana left the lounge and made her way to Kal's rarely used quarters. She had her eyes set on the backup to his phone, she needed a few contacts. If Kal was going to regain his past he was going to have to reconnect with the people in his life. And Diana knew just where to start. Lois Lane.


End file.
